Diamonds and Coal
by LesCrimesDelAmour
Summary: Alternate timeline beginning in early season 2, just after epsiode 3 "The Mousetrap". Cameron takes Sarah out on a date and develops a sense of humor. What will become of this? Later a possible Skynet lead may get them into some trouble. Ongoing femslash fic. Short chapters but hopefully frequent updates.
1. Chapter 1

One Friday afternoon...

"Not happening." Sarah replied, sitting back down at the dining room table to re-examine some paperwork on a possible Skynet lead.

"It would only require approximately three hours of your time," Cameron responded back, taking a few steps closer to Sarah, who refused to look back up at her.

"You're here to protect my son and help us stop the end of the world from happening, not to watch corny Hollywood chick flicks," Sarah declared as she began shuffling through her papers.

"Technically the film is classified as a romantic comedy." Cameron countered.

"I don't care. I don't want to see it." Sarah snapped, licking her index finger in order to fix two of the pages that had gotten stuck together, trying to keep her attention focused on something other than the machine standing in front of her. Cameron was wearing one of her spaghetti strap tank tops and short jean shorts and her petite frame was hovering a little too close to Sarah for comfort.

Cameron stood in silence for a few seconds before she responded again. "Aren't you a chick?"

Sarah let out a sigh before finally meeting eyes with the Terminator. "What?"

"You said the movie was a chick flick. Isn't 'chick' a slang term for a woman?" Cameron asked as she stared blankly at Sarah, speaking as usual in a tone mostly bereft of inflections.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not a 'chick'. I don't want to be called one." Sarah replied before again turning back to her papers. Though these awkward conversations with the cyborg weren't anything new, they didn't seem to be getting any less tedious.

"Do you find it offensive? I apologize if I…"

"No, Cameron, I don't find it offensive. Just a personal preference." Sarah said, cutting her off. "Got it?" She asked, meeting eyes with the Terminator again and giving her a fake smile.

"Thank you for explaining," Cameron responded as she turned to leave.

"Why would you ask me, anyway? John doesn't want to go?" Sarah couldn't decide whether the thought of her son's bionic protector dragging him to see a romantic comedy was more amusing or disturbing.

"He told me to ask you," she replied, stopping to face Sarah again.

"He did, did he? Why can't you just go by yourself then, if this is so important?"

"I would like someone to accompany me, in case I have questions about the film afterward."

"What kind of questions?" Sarah was somewhat curious as to what exactly the cyborg might feel the need to inquire about some mindless comedy movie.

"Questions about the dynamics of romance and relationship building. I also want to increase my knowledge of humor and it's influence on interpersonal communication."

"Why is that something you need to be concerned with?"

"They are not topics I feel I currently have an adequate amount of data on."

Sarah couldn't help but assume this must be related to John's new relationship with Riley, the perky blonde who'd come into his life seemingly out of nowhere. It would certainly make sense, but the more information Cameron continued to learn about human behavior, the better she was going to become at infiltrating, and manipulating people, which wasn't something Sarah was exactly comfortable with. Not that she was entirely comfortable even having Cameron around in the first place. "So read a book."

"I've already completed six novels recently, now I would prefer to see events play out in a live-action setting."

Sarah rolled her eyes._  
_

"The film has garnered a considerable amount of favorable reviews, earning an 86% rating on rotten tomatoes dot com. I think you might possibly enjoy it, Sarah."

"Cameron, do you understand the word 'no'?" Sarah attempted to end the conversation as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"I think you should go, Mom." John interjected as he entered the room, not making eye contact with his mother or Cameron, but instead beelining for the pantry to grab a pack of Slim Jims.

"Why?"

"It was my idea." John replied with a slight smirk as he turned to face his mother and the cyborg. "You've been spending a lot of time working on leads lately. You should take a break. What if the movie's actually good? Maybe it'll help you unwind a little." He meant it sincerely, but realized too late how that statement probably sounded.

Sarah wasn't sure exactly how to take it. "Why, do I seem wound up to you?" She asked back, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Sorry, Mom, I just uh…"

"Don't answer that. You know what? Fine. I'll go see this stupid movie with Cameron, but for my trouble, you two are dusting and vacuuming the house tomorrow."

"The whole house?" John asked.

"Yes, the whole house." Sarah clarified.

"Ok, deal." John replied, giving Cameron a quick nod as she turned to glance blankly at him. He was mildly amused by the idea of the terminator and his mother going on a movie date together, but also had ulterior motives. He had already planned to invite Riley over tonight, so they'd have the house to themselves since Derek supposedly wouldn't be back until tomorrow either. At least for a little while they wouldn't have to tolerate anyone giving them dirty looks or interfering with whatever may or may not happen while they hung out together.

Sarah turned her attention back to Cameron. "Ok, Girlie, find a decent showtime for tonight, by that I mean not too late, and you're driving."

The cyborg was already a step ahead. "There's a showing tonight at 5:40 at the local theater."

"Dinner's going to be late by the time we get back." Sarah responded, turning her attention to John.

"Don't worry about it, Mom. Why don't you two just stop somewhere nice on the way back? I can fend for myself for one night." he responded, hoping to buy some more alone time for himself and Riley.

"Don't be ridiculous, Cameron doesn't even eat… Well, not much anyway."

"I'll just have a bite of whatever you order if that's ok. I don't mind stopping." Cameron interjected.

Sarah gave the cyborg an odd look before she turned back to her son, who was snickering as he took a bite of one of his Slim Jims. "You think this is funny don't you?"

"Why would I think that?" he teased.

"That's ok. Don't worry, I'll add some more chores to my list for both of you to do this weekend."

"Hey, you can't add to the deal! We already agreed on it!" John protested.

"I never agreed to have dinner with Tin Miss."

"Come on, it's not gonna kill you."

"It might. Either way, Derek better not find out about this."

John chuckled. "Your secret's safe with me." He promised as he and Cameron exited the room, leaving Sarah alone to wonder exactly why the hell she'd agreed to this.

TBC..


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you ready to get this over with?" Sarah asked as she found Cameron putting some finishing touches on her eye makeup using the hallway mirror.

"Yes." Cameron replied as she put her eyeshadow back in her pocket and turned to face Sarah.

"You guys heading out?" John called down from halfway up the stairs.

"Yes." Cameron responded again.

"Last chance to tag along." Sarah offered.

"I think I'll pass. It's really not my kind of movie."

"Not exactly mine either…"

"Don't lie." John replied with a smile, not wasting one last opportunity to tease his mother before she left for the night with Cameron.

Sarah shot him back a quick smirk, but wasn't going to let him bait her. "We shouldn't be out too late," was her chosen reply.

"It's not a big deal, Mom. I'll probably just order Chinese. Hey, maybe I'll even do my own movie night. Is it ok if I order something from pay per view?"

"Go ahead, as long as it's not porn."

"...Really, Mom?"

_Touché._

"We should go." Cameron interrupted. "If we are late, we could miss some exposition in the beginning scenes of the film."

"Lead the way," Sarah replied, tossing Cameron her keys. The cyborg then proceeded out the front door.

"Hey, Mom." John called out just before Sarah was out the door. "Try to have fun, ok?" He said sincerely.

"I'll see if I can make an effort." Sarah replied just before closing the door behind her.

John remained standing there in silence for a few moments with his hand on his cell phone. As soon as he heard Cameron start the engine to their SUV, he dialed Riley's number.

"30 November," came her voice from the other end.

"Coast is clear."

"Alight, I'll be right over."

"I was thinking about ordering a movie off pay per view."

"Oh really? Well wait a sec, have you ever seen The 40-Year Old Virgin?"

"No, I've never heard of it."

"Seriously? I'll bring it over. You gotta watch it, it's hilarious."

"Ok sounds good, see you soon." John replied with a smile as he hung up, amused with himself for having actually pulled this off.

The first few minutes of the car ride to the theater was practically silent as Sarah sat, arms crossed, staring out the window trying to imagine herself doing anything else but this. Sensing the slight tension, Cameron switched on the radio to the local pop music station. The song "Dig" by Incubus was playing. Sarah sighed. This was going to be a long night.

…

"So which movie did your mom take your sister to see?" Riley asked as John loaded her DVD into the player. She chuckled when John revealed the title. "Wow that doesn't sound like your mom's type of thing at all."

"No, not really, but who knows, maybe it'll actually help her relax a little."

"What, you mean you don't like having to sneak me around behind her back? Honestly your sister creeps me out a little more though, not gonna lie." Riley admitted as she sat down on the couch and made herself comfortable.

"Yeah she's uh... not really used to me having friends over."

"What is she like your _second_ mother or something?"

"She's just a little overprotective." John replied as he tuned the TV to the right input and watched as The 40-Year Old Virgin's DVD menu popped up.

"Well at least _you're_ pretty chill. How'd you manage to end up in the Addams family tree anyway?"

"'Take after my dad I guess."

John had never mentioned his father before. "Where is your dad anyway?"

"He... passed away a long time ago."

Riley's demeanor shifted sympathetically at the revelation. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

Not wanting their conversation to turn buzzkill, John decided to change the subject. "Yeah, well hey, before we start the movie I'm gonna order some Chinese. Let me know what you want." he said as he pulled the menu out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She handed it back to him without even looking at it. "Chicken fried rice, please!" Riley answered with a grin.

"You got it." John responded as he pulled out his cell to place the order.

...

Sarah switched off the radio upon their arrival to give Cameron her orders. "I'll get the tickets." She declared as Cameron parked the car in the theater lot. "Go find the concession stand and get me some Raisinettes." she commanded, handing Cameron a $5 bill. Cameron silently obeyed as the pair exited the vehicle.

…

"Here's yours." Sarah said as she exchanged Cameron's ticket for the box of Raisinettes. They made their way to the attendant who cheerfully took their tickets and pointed them in the direction of their theater.

"Why did he rip my ticket in half?" Cameron asked as they proceeded on.

"He gave you the stub, to prove you paid for your ticket in case you need to get another snack or something."

"I won't… Unless you want something else."

Sarah huffed at how literally Cameron always had to take everything. "Let's just find our damn seats."

"You mean pick our seats? I didn't see an assignment on the ticket"

"Please shut up."

As they stepped into the dark theater Cameron scanned for an optimal viewing spot. There was a significant crowd, though it was empty enough to allow her to find a decent place to sit. A preview for an upcoming action film was playing on the screen as Cameron lead Sarah to the spot she preferred.

"This is not our movie." Cameron observed.

"That's because it's a preview. They always show them before the movie to try to get you to see the new ones when they come out, but don't get any ideas."

"Thank you for explaining." Cameron responded as they took their seats.

As the movie started, Sarah surprisingly felt her mood beginning to lighten. She reluctantly admitted to herself a lot of the humor was clever and well timed. Though she felt somewhat guilty for allowing herself this indulgence, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to take a night off to refresh her mental state. She looked over at Cameron a few times to see that the cyborg was studying the film intently as if it were some kind of research project, though a hint of a smile showed up on her face during the parts where the rest of the audience would burst into laughter.

"Does that mean it's over?" Cameron asked as the end credits began to roll.

"Yeah, let's get going." Sarah replied as they left their seats and headed for the exit.

"Did you enjoy the movie?" Cameron asked as she held the glass door open for Sarah and she stepped out of the building.

"I guess it was decent. How bout you?"

"I liked it."

Sarah snorted. "Right. Do all machines prefer romantic comedies?"

Cameron turned her head toward Sarah who was walking beside her and tilted it slightly. "No, but I heard you laugh a total of 9 times," she continued as they made their way back to the car.

"It had its moments."

Sarah noticed Cameron's pace quicken as they approached their vehicle. The terminator beat Sarah to the passenger door and pulled the handle to open it for her. The woman gave her a stern look before getting in, but Cameron simply proceeded to shut Sarah's door and climbed into the driver's seat.

"That wasn't necessary. I'm a big girl, I can get my own door."

Cameron returned Sarah's remark with her trademark doe-eyed stare.

"What are you looking at?" The woman snapped. Sarah's appetite was beginning to turn her mood sour again.

"Are you hungry?" Cameron asked softly.

"Starving. Where are you taking me to eat?" Sarah inquired as Cameron started the engine and buckled her seat belt.

"Where would you like to go?"

"The Cheesecake factory sounds pretty good right now."

Cameron gave Sarah another tilted-head stare. "A factory is not a suitable place for dining."

"It's a restaurant." Sarah clarified.

"Why is it called the cheesecake factory if it's a restaurant?"

"Because that's just what they decided to name it."

"But if it's not a factory then the name is a misnomer."

"Well if you're not too hung up about it, that's where I'd like to go." Sarah responded as she crossed her arms in defiance.

Cameron complied and put the transmission into reverse. "So you're having cheesecake for dinner? Isn't that traditionally just a dessert item?"

"No, they serve other food too. Just take us there, Tin Miss. I'm not in the mood for 20 questions. You can see for yourself." Sarah commanded as she programmed the location into her GPS for Cameron to follow.

"Your wish is my command." Cameron declared, backing out of the parking space.

Sarah gave Cameron an odd look. "Are you trying to be funny?"

"I told you, I'm working on my humor."

Sarah rolled her eyes. _Great. Terminator humor._

"I also have a question. Do you remember the part in the movie where Scott's dog urinated on his love interest's sofa?" the cyborg asked, switching out of reverse and into drive.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Do people normally find someone else's embarrassment humorous?"

"In a lot of cases, yes. They do."

"That seems a bit sadistic."

Sarah chuckled. "I guess it is a little bit. Ironic observation coming from a killer cyborg." She said as she shot Cameron a quick glance to notice her lips turned up in a pout-suggesting display.

"We're designed to be efficient, not cruel."

"Right, of course. _Efficient_ killers. Not sadistic," came Sarah's sarcastic reply as Cameron switched the radio back on, this time to the heavier rock station that was currently playing "Breath" by Breaking Benjamin.

"What? Did I hurt your feelings?" Sarah teased, as if the machine had any... at least Sarah assumed not...

**TBC... and btw, the movie Cameron and Sarah saw doesn't actually exist, just in case anyone's scratching their heads trying to figure out what it is :P**


	3. Chapter 3

"This is definitely not a factory." Cameron remarked as the two women entered the restaurant and she scanned over the elegant decor.

"Will you get over it?" Sarah snarled back.

"I am over it." Cameron replied in her usual monotone.

Sarah quickly made her way over to the hostess to put her name in for a table.

"It'll be about a 30 - 45 minute wait," the young woman informed her.

_Fantastic. _she thought. _Who's idea was it to come here on a Friday night? Oh right. Mine..._

"Thank you." she said, accepting the pager from the hostess before turning back to Cameron. "Here hold this. When it vibrates it means our table is ready." She commanded the cyborg.

Sarah then spotted an open space on one of the nearby benches to sit while she waited. When a moment or two passed with Cameron standing in front of her awkwardly still, it began to grate on her nerves.

"Why don't you sit down, Cameron?"

Cameron squeezed in on the edge of the bench, pinning Sarah between her and the middle aged blonde woman sitting on the other side of her.

"Sorry." she apologized as she accidentally nudged the other woman.

"Oh that's no problem," she responded.

It was a little cramped, but at least the terminator looked less conspicuous. Sarah would just have to try to block out the sensation of Cameron's bare arm resting against hers as she sat next to the cyborg with her arms crossed.

After a few minutes had passed, Cameron suddenly rose to her feet again and approached the woman on the other side of Sarah.

"Excuse me, but would you mind taking a photo of us?" she asked with a polite tone put on her voice and retrieved her cell phone from her pocket.

"Oh sure!" the woman responded, standing to her feet to get a clear shot of them with Cameron's cell phone camera.

"Cameron, wha…" was all Sarah managed to get out before Cameron sat back down next to her and leaned into the shot.

"Ok, smile!" the woman commanded. Sarah glanced at Cameron who was grinning convincingly next to her. Turning back to the camera, she quickly followed suit and put on the best fake smile she could muster to avoid complicating things further.

"Thank you." Cameron said after the shot was taken and the woman handed her back her phone.

"Sure thing!" she responded cheerfully as she sat back down.

"What the hell was that about?" Sarah hissed into Cameron's ear.

"It's customary during special events for people to photograph themselves." the terminator replied calmly.

"Special events?"

Doe eyes met Sarah's again. "It's just you and me together, but not as part of a mission objective. It's nice to take a night off to clear your head."

Sarah snorted. "I don't think my head's ever gonna be cleared, Girlie."

"What happened to Charley's wife wasn't your fault. You shouldn't blame yourself for her death." Cameron attempted to reassure her about the latest in a long line of casualties she'd been forced to endure and was probably still fresh in her mind.

"Can we not talk about that right now, please?" Sarah snapped back at her.

"I'm sorry. What would you like to talk about?"

"How 'bout how nice it would be for you to stay quiet until we get our table?"

Cameron's expression turned semi-pouty again as she turned away from Sarah and faced forward.

"So are you two from around here or are you just visiting?" a voice from the opposite side of Sarah inquired. The other woman must not have been able to overhear them arguing over the ambient noise of the restaurant. Either that or she was just the nosey type and wouldn't mind getting involved in their altercation.

Sarah wasn't exactly in the mood for conversation with anyone, but the woman who introduced herself as Sue seemed genuinely nice enough, and apparently didn't notice she and Cameron had been arguing. Sarah explained to her that she was doing a dinner and movie night with her daughter and revealed the movie Cameron had been begging her to see.

"Oh, I've been wanting to see that! Was it good?"

"It was... better than I thought it'd be." Sarah admitted.

Sarah would go on to make small talk with the woman for a little while before Sue's pager vibrated.

"Oh, I guess my table's finally ready. It was nice meeting you, Sarah!"

"Likewise." Sarah replied with a smile as Sue proceeded to the hostess with the rest of her family.

Sarah scooted a few inches away from Cameron now that the bench had more space. Cameron immediately crossed her arms as Sarah's had been earlier. Sarah gave the cyborg an odd look at the gesture. Was she just trying to mimic her?

"Why did you do that?" Cameron asked without looking at her.

"Do what?"

"Have a conversation with that woman when you wouldn't have one with me."

Sarah huffed. "What are you, jealous? I'm not the one who got her attention by asking her to take a damn picture of us. What are you going to do with it anyway? Show it to John so he'll never let me live this down?"

"Our table is ready." Cameron replied, still without making eye contact, as she handed Sarah the pager that had just begun to vibrate and light up.

…

"Your server will be right with you." The hostess informed the pair as they sat down in one of the booths.

"Thank you." Sarah replied.

Sarah observed as Cameron ignored her and proceeded to skim over her menu, wondering why she would even bother.

"I know you don't really eat or drink, but at least order an ice water anyway just so they don't wonder what the hell's wrong with you." Sarah instructed as she browsed over her own menu for a few moments. Cameron didn't answer her, but Sarah was too hungry to care at this point. After she'd decided what she planned to order, Sarah looked back up at Cameron to find the cyborg's blank expression not on the menu but boring a hole in her instead.

"Can you not stare at me like that?" the woman growled.

"Sorry." Cameron replied, readjusting her gaze a few degrees to the left, where she quickly noticed a dark haired waitress heading in their direction.

"Hi, I'm Ashley," the young woman greeted. "I'll be taking care of the two of you this evening. Can I get you started with something to drink?"

"Ice water, please." Sarah responded as her former occupation stared her in the face.

"I will have an ice water as well." Cameron added without inflection.

"No problem, would either of you care to hear about our specials for this evening?"

"No thanks, I've already decided." Sarah answered.

"Oh, ok. What can I get for you?"

"We'll just split the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta. _She's_ not very hungry."

"Ok, I'll have that right out for you." The waitress declared as she took the menus back. She returned a few minutes later with the two ice waters and some bread.

"So what's been going on with Riley lately?" Sarah asked as she took a slice of bread from the basket.

Cameron's head tilted slightly to the side. "Who?"

"Uh… Riley. John's… friend?" Since when was Cameron forgetful?

"Oh, right… I believe their relationship is progressing far enough to warrant concern. I cannot properly protect him if he does not want me around when he's with her. They need to be separated… for his safety… and hers."

Sarah found it strange that Cameron would even mention Riley's safety as any kind of concern. Truthfully, Cameron wasn't exactly placing Riley's safety as a priority, but she knew by now that Sarah would get angry if she gave the impression that she didn't value human life.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Sarah asked as she finished buttering her bread slice and took a bite.

"I don't know."

Sarah rolled her eyes but was content to drop the subject for now. After all, she still wasn't exactly sure herself how to handle John Connor's first potentially serious love interest.

The table was mostly silent as Sarah waited for her pasta. Cameron seemed almost… frustrated, and Sarah still wasn't exactly comfortable on this little excursion with the cyborg. She didn't want to give Cameron the impression that tonight would significantly change anything between them, so she wasn't willing to make an effort to mitigate her crankiness. Once the food arrived however, and her hunger was finally assuaged, her mood began to lighten again.

Sarah smiled at a little girl two tables over. She'd accidentally made eye contact with her as she chewed a bite of her pasta, her eyes eager to wander away from the terminator staring blankly down at the table from the opposite side. But Cameron wasn't oblivious, and she immediately turned her head to find out who Sarah was smiling at. She observed the child, approximately 6 or 7 years of age, dining with her family. The little girl briefly returned Sarah's smile before turning away after noticing Cameron glaring at her. The terminator appeared to be growing discontent with Sarah's insistence to be friendly towards everyone but her tonight.

Cameron also observed that the girl had a flower pinned through her hair just above her left ear. "Why does that girl have a flower growing out of her head?" Cameron asked, turning back to Sarah.

"To look pretty, something you wouldn't understand, and you probably just gave her the creeps." came the woman's snide reply.

"There _are_ certain things I find pleasing on an aesthetic level," the cyborg defended.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"It doesn't matter." Cameron replied curtly, looking away to the side.

Sarah rolled her eyes again. "Whatever." She said as she took another bite of her pasta before continuing. "But you know what's funny? I used to do the same thing when I was a little girl."

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, impressed by the possibility that Sarah might actually be making an effort to continue conversing with her.

Sarah's smile returned as she went on, "Hard to believe now, but when I was growing up, every now and then me and a friend of mine who lived close by would go for a walk around our neighborhood to see how many different kinds of flowers we could find. We'd just take them right out of our neighbors' front yards. We'd stick some in each other's hair, and later I'd save all mine and put them in a glass of water to see how long each of them would stay alive. I'd always use the one that lasted the longest to play 'He loves me, he loves me not' for whatever boy I thought I had a crush on at the time."

Cameron gave Sarah another trademark head tilt as her deep brown eyes fixed on the older woman. Sarah sighed. It wasn't often she allowed herself the privilege of reminiscing about her pre-Skynet life. The fact that she would do so in conversation with Cameron surprised even herself once she realized what she was doing, but the irony was amusing enough to make her continue anyway. "It's when you pluck out each petal, alternating between 'Loves you' and 'Loves you not'. When you pull out the last petal, whichever one you're on supposedly determines whether the person is in love with you or not. Make sense?"

When Sarah saw Cameron still staring at her wide-eyed, and her mouth slightly open, she gave the cyborg a wry smirk. "Sorry, forgot who I was talking to." She said mockingly.

"Don't be sorry." Cameron responded immediately. "That was a tight story. What was your friend's name that you used to pick flowers with?"

Sarah's smirk faded. "Uh… Melissa." she replied, wondering why the hell Cameron would seem so interested in a random excerpt from her childhood.

"Melissa…" Cameron repeated, seemingly enthralled. "What happened to her?"

"I'm not sure." She continued, still wondering why Tin Miss would give a shit. "When I was about 10 we moved somewhere else and I haven't talked to her since. I can only imagine what she must've thought if she ever heard the news about me…" Sarah mused as she took another forkful of her pasta, "Your old friend Sarah Connor, now a terrorist lunatic…"

"No." Cameron interrupted. "You have the spirit of a great warrior. I see it now, how much Future John will take after you."

Sarah stopped chewing the last bite she'd taken and locked eyes with Cameron as she continued on the unexpected turn the conversation had taken. "He always loved you. Very much. He might get angry with you sometimes now, but he will understand someday, why you do what you do, and how important you are to him."

Sarah took a deep breath before she swallowed her food. "After I'm gone I take it?"

"Maybe. Or maybe this time things will be different. Maybe you won't get sick."

Sarah swallowed again, this time without food in her mouth. "Well, I guess we'll find out in a few years, right?" the woman asked ruefully.

"Are you sure I can't get you anything else?" The waitress interrupted, seemingly reappearing out of nowhere and noticing Cameron appeared to not have touched her drink or any of the pasta that was clearly all Sarah's.

"I'm fine, thank you, but I believe my date would like a slice of cheesecake. Please return her menu so she can choose a flavor." the terminator replied.

"Ok, I'll be right back." she replied, disappearing as fast as she had reappeared.

"I'm not your date, I'm your mother," Sarah corrected, "and how did you know I wanted cheesecake?"

Cameron smiled. "Why else would we be at The Cheesecake Factory? I would be disappointed if you didn't order any."

Sarah was slightly taken aback. "Disappointed? What the hell are you talking about?"

Cameron's smile widened. "Don't think I'm not having a bite."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I will not apologize if this fic causes a craving for cheesecake. It shouldn't be too hard to come upon.**

Sarah hesitantly chuckled. "Potato chips and pancakes not doing it for you anymore?"

"I'm broadening my horizons." Cameron responded.

Sarah raised an eyebrow as she continued eating. "In more ways than one I see," she remarked at Cameron's expanding use of idioms.

"You've noticed the changes I've been making. That's good." Cameron declared seriously.

Sarah paused for a second. She wasn't exactly comfortable with Cameron's continuing evolution, and she had to consider the dangers behind the machine's growing sophistication.

It was curious however, that Cameron would think it was "good" for Sarah to be aware of these developments. It seemed the cyborg was either desiring a certain level of amity between them or just a general improvement in their flimsy relationship. Tonight was proof enough of that, but Sarah wasn't sure if she appreciated it or not. After all, she'd promised herself she'd never allow Cameron to be fully trusted after the Jeep explosion, even if she'd proved to be a useful asset at times. What all exactly did these so-called "changes" consist of anyway? Quirky humor and a sweet tooth? Something more?

"So you can actually _taste_ the food you eat? Could you always do that?" Sarah asked, deciding she'd start there and maybe pry for more answers later.

"I can analyze and compile data based on the composition of food items by placing them in my mouth, yes."

"So you don't actually have a preference for certain things then? It's all just data to you."

"Not necessarily. That's why I'd like to experience more to determine if I do prefer the way certain things taste or not," the terminator explained.

"I see. A relatively harmless activity for you I suppose, assuming you stick to only putting food in your mouth. But _I'm_ still getting to pick the cheesecake flavor," Sarah declared.

"Of course." Cameron agreed. "I could recite the available flavors, but that would probably just annoy you."

"Probably." Sarah echoed, still working on finishing off her pasta. "Memorized the menu then I take it? Any particularly useful data in there?"

"Not exactly, but I am keeping track of the cheesecakes you order."

Sarah frowned at the pluralization. "Cheese_cakes_? What do you mean?"

"We should keep coming back until we try every flavor. It'll be fun." Cameron replied, her innocent smile belying possible hidden motives.

Sarah lowered her fork with the bite she'd been about to take back down to her plate, a derisive look on her face. "Fun? Don't play games. You don't have fun," she scoffed.

"There are many activities I find more preferable to others," the cyborg countered.

"Yeah well, don't hold your breath. This is likely a one-time only type of deal," Sarah responded, finishing her previously aborted bite.

"I don't need to breathe to survive. If I hold it for long enough will we be able to do this again?" Cameron asked, her lingering smile betraying the fact that she knew she was being a smartass.

Sarah rolled her eyes as she chewed. "You're really something else, you know that?" she grumbled.

"Something else what?" Cameron asked, the usual lack of inflection in her voice returning.

"Huh?" Sarah muttered.

Cameron's expression turned rigid. "Something else, other than what?"

Sarah wasn't buying it. She knew Cameron had a tendency to take things too literally, but she wasn't that stupid, especially considering the recent improvements in her social skills. "Alright, knock it off. You know what I meant."

"Knock what off?" Cameron continued, not missing a beat. "The waitress' head if the bitch doesn't bring you that menu in the next 30 seconds?" She said, turning her head to see if she could spot the young woman.

Sarah actually laughed, a full laugh that time, losing it at hearing Cameron use profanity for the first time. It was so unexpected that it caught her off guard. "What's gotten into you?" she asked shaking her head.

"She is incredibly inefficient." the terminator declared, sounding annoyed.

After Sarah's snide jab back in the car earlier, Cameron decided to switch to experimenting directly with humor instead of asking Sarah more questions. It seemed she was getting the hang of it rather quickly. For whatever reason, most humans tended to find vulgarity highly amusing.

"That doesn't make her a bitch."

"I was only kidding. I'm working on my humor, remember? I made you laugh." Cameron smiled again as she turned back to Sarah, relaxing her feigned stiffness. "That was part of my mission for tonight."

"Congratulations." Sarah replied smartly. "I thought tonight _wasn't_ supposed to be part of your mission? What happened to taking a night off to clear your head?"

"That _is _tonight's mission," Cameron clarified. "I wanted to help you not be so stressed out."

Sarah wasn't exactly comfortable with Cameron's concern over her stress level. It wasn't any of her damn business. Tonight was just supposed to be about her analysis of some dumb movie and then a stop to grab something to eat, not cyborg humor therapy time for Sarah.

Now feeling her patience for Cameron's confusing behavior wearing thin, Sarah decided it was time to conclude this outing. "I changed my mind. I don't want cheesecake."

"Why not?" Cameron asked with another trademark head tilt.

"Taking a night off is all fine and dandy, but it's getting late and I want to at least try to get a good night's rest before starting again tomorrow."

"It's only 8:32. You will still have ample time to get the recommended eight hours of sleep."

"I was planning on getting up early. That list of names on our wall's not getting any shorter."

"You shouldn't worry about it. Derek is already out investigating one of them now. It won't compromise our mission for you to sleep in tomorrow."

Something was amiss. "Why is this so damn important?" Sarah asked, "And don't pretend this is about me being 'stressed out'. You're hiding something again aren't you?"

"About you?" Cameron's expression turned cold again. "It usually is isn't it?"

Sarah tensed at Tin Miss' sudden rudeness.

"But you're right. We should go. Dessert is unnecessary," the terminator continued, her voice turning monotonous once again.

Sarah wasn't quite sure at first how to respond to what was likely Cameron's attempt to bait her so the two engaged in a silent staredown for a few seconds before they were again interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Here you go." The waitress cheerfully interposed as she reappeared again and handed Sarah back her menu.

"Thanks," Sarah replied as she reopened it and quickly found the list of cheesecakes. She figured it couldn't hurt to look, but inevitably she also couldn't help but find them moderately enticing.

"Fine, have it your way." Sarah conceded. "I guess I wouldn't mind staying a bit longer."

A smile once again returned to Cameron's face.

…

"So have you decided on a cheesecake yet?" The waitress asked, reappearing in Sarah and Cameron's booth.

"Yes. I'll have the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle." Sarah answered.

"Excellent choice. I'll go ahead and have that right out for you."

Sarah smiled as she handed the waitress back the menu. She then focused her gaze back on Cameron as the waitress retreated.

"What's the smirk for?" Sarah asked as she took what would likely be her final bite of pasta for the evening.

"Thank you for coming out with me tonight. I hope you'll reconsider doing this again, Mom." Cameron answered.

"You don't need to call me that."

"Sorry. I hope you'll reconsider doing this again, Babe." Cameron corrected.

Sarah immediately coughed several times, nearly choking on her last mouthful of pasta.

"Do you require assistance?" Cameron asked seriously as Sarah reached for her glass of water.

Sarah raised a hand at the terminator. "Don't ever call me 'Babe' again!" the woman snarled after swallowing some water to recover.

"When we're in public we need to portray appropriate roles to properly blend in."

"We don't need roles when no one else is listening! Stop screwing with me!" Sarah shouted back at her, apparently not finding Cameron's routine for tonight the least bit amusing now.

"People _are_ listening. You should reduce the volume of your voice, you are starting to draw attention from the other guests." Cameron responded calmly in contrast.

"Go to hell!" Sarah hissed in a lower volume but with the same display of anger. Little did she know her reaction formation had been exactly what Cameron was hoping for.

Sarah crossed her arms as the two women sat in another silent staring contest. Cameron proceeded to cross her own arms, mimicking Sarah's gesture for the second time tonight. Sarah turned her head sharply to the side in defiance.

The table remained silent before the waitress returned to trade Sarah's finished bowl of pasta for the slice of cheesecake.

"Enjoy!" the young woman chimed just before turning to leave.

"I didn't mean to make you upset." Cameron lied as Sarah took a bite of the cheesecake.

"Forget it." Sarah answered, willing to let it go for now so she could just enjoy her dessert. "Are _you_ having a bite of this or not?" she asked, re-allowing eye contact.

Cameron proceeded to reach in with her fork to slice off a piece for herself.

"It's an interesting flavor." Cameron remarked after swallowing. "Do you like it?"

"It's good." Sarah replied simply, looking down at the cheesecake as she sunk her fork back into it.

"So can we do this again next week?"

"No." Sarah answered without looking back up at the terminator.

"Please?" Cameron pleaded, a look of childlike innocence in her deep brown eyes.

Sarah's irritation at wondering what Cameron was truly up to was reaching its boiling point. "_Why_ is this so fucking important to you?" the woman demanded as she met Cameron's gaze with her own again. "There's something you're not telling me."

"I do have a surprise for you." the cyborg admitted.

"I don't like surprises." Sarah stated as she glared at the terminator and was met with yet another smile.

"You might like this one."

"I hope for your sake it doesn't involve you hurting anyone. I'm really not a big fan of that." Sarah retorted as she took another bite of the cheesecake but not breaking the eye contact.

"I know. This one will be good. I swear."

Sarah's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure there's nothing still wrong with you?"

"Not anymore… everything's… perfect right now." Cameron responded, still smiling as she looked deep into emerald green eyes.

**P.S. to a certain someone: ****wheresMYupdate? Are you enjoying eating my dust? ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**And we're back, sorry for the delay. Special thanks to wheresmyluce for giving me some ideas for this chapter and beyond. I will try to update more frequently from now on. And thanks to everyone else for reading and reviewing. Much appreciated.**

"When do I get this surprise?" Sarah asked with a hint of annoyance in her tone. Cameron's equivocations were growing more disconcerting by the second.

"Probably tomorrow." the cyborg replied.

"I'm not convinced it's something I'm going to like."

"I am." Cameron said, a smile still plastered to her soft features as Sarah took one of the last bites of her cheesecake.

"I'll be right back." Sarah announced as she suddenly set her fork down and got up to use the restroom.

...

Sarah stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, aggravated and unsure if Tin Miss was intentionally trying to get under her skin at this point. As she washed her hands she contemplated on running off and leaving without her, but eventually decided to just ignore Cameron as best she could while she waited for the waitress to return with the check. After all, John probably wouldn't be too happy finding out she'd left the cyborg to find her own way home, which of course she would eventually anyway.

Coincidentally however, Cameron hadn't made any more overt attempts to communicate with Sarah after she returned to the table.

"Please sign the top copy and have a great night, Ms. Baum." the waitress chimed as she returned Sarah's credit card and dinner bill.

"Thank you." Sarah replied.

"Alright let's get out of here," she commanded Cameron after signing the check.

The terminator complied and the two women made their way back to the entrance of the restaurant. As they approached the doors, Cameron once again stepped ahead of Sarah to get the door for her.

Sarah groaned at the gesture. Cameron still didn't seem to get that it wasn't her style to be pampered by anyone, especially a machine. She walked briskly ahead of Cameron once outside, but the cyborg effortlessly kept up just a few steps behind her.

"May I ask you something?" The terminator inquired as she followed closely behind the woman.

"What now?" Sarah snapped back, slowing her pace a bit once she realized Cameron was determined to remain close by her side for whatever reason.

"Your jeans... I've seen you handle yourself well in combat situations. Does wearing tight pants help you maneuver better or is it just to flaunt your sex appeal?"

"What?!" Sarah asked back, so startled by the question that she stopped walking completely. Cameron quickly took a step back when Sarah glared at her with a look of disapproval, but the cyborg continued anyway, "Or both?"

"I've had enough of your nonsense for one evening!" the woman snarled, and turned to continue walking back to the car, but didn't happen to notice she'd been standing right next to a parking stump in front of an empty space. She tried to regain her balance as she clumsily walked right into it, but couldn't recover quickly enough and collapsed to the ground in a heap.

"Are you ok?" Cameron asked as she quickly took a few steps closer to the woman and began analyzing her for injuries.

Sarah grunted as she attempted to climb back to her feet, ignoring the terminator's question but instead hissed in pain as she realized putting weight on her left ankle was no longer a good idea.

Cameron bent down and took hold of Sarah's arm to try to help her up, but the woman pushed her away immediately. "Get the hell off of me!" she shouted at the cyborg.

"You've injured yourself. You require assistance." she insisted anyway.

After a few seconds Sarah finally relented and allowed Cameron to help her up. She attempted to hop her way back to the car as best she could, only allowing Cameron to make contact with her if she felt in danger of losing her balance.

Once they'd made it back to their vehicle, Cameron opened the passenger door for Sarah and the woman stumbled inside.

"Fuck…" She mumbled as Cameron climbed into the driver's seat.

"I'll help you get cleaned up and take a look at your ankle when we get home." the terminator offered as she started the engine.

"I'll help myself get cleaned up and take a look at my own damn ankle, thanks."

"It could be broken." Cameron said as she stared at Sarah, seemingly with genuine concern.

"Maybe I don't fucking care!" Sarah growled back, looking away from the terminator and out her window instead.

Cameron then proceeded to put the transmission in gear. The rest of the ride home would be practically silent, as the tension that now hung between the two women was less than conducive to any meaningful conversation, not to mention the throbbing pain in Sarah's ankle.

...

The turning of the key into the front door lock took John Connor's attention off of the video game he was playing for long enough to see the door swing open and his mother and the cyborg re-emerge.

Sarah had one hand on Cameron's shoulder to steady herself as she limped forward into the living room.

"Hey Mom," John called from the sofa. "I guess you made it back in one… Whoa, are you alright?" he asked after turning around to see his mother, who appeared to have sustained some type of injury.

"I'm fine." Sarah responded. "Just had a little accident in the parking lot."

"What happened?"

"I wasn't looking where I was going thanks to Cameron. I just tripped. It's not serious."

"You don't know that. I will take a look to determine to severity of your injury." Cameron interjected.

"I said I'm fine! … Ow, fuck!" Sarah hissed as she attempted to stand on her injured ankle again.

"Get your mother some ice for her ankle." Cameron commanded John, which startled the boy for a second, before he decided to comply.

"How was the movie?" he asked as he hit the pause button on the Xbox controller and stood to his feet.

"Not bad." Sarah replied.

"Really?"

"Really. What have you been up to?" Sarah asked as John disappeared from view into the kitchen to collect the ice from the freezer.

"Just playing this new game called Mass Effect." he answered innocently from the other room, certainly not revealing the fact that he'd been with Riley earlier. "Where'd you guys stop for dinner?"

"A place called The Cheesecake Factory, even though it's not a factory." Cameron declared in Sarah's stead.

John chuckled. "Cheesecake sounds pretty good. Did you save me a slice?"

"No." Cameron curtly replied before turning her attention back on Sarah. "Let me walk you to your bed."

Sarah rolled her eyes but decided to comply. Her childish attempt to prove to the cyborg that she didn't need her help had already backfired, so she decided to yield to the terminator maybe just this once.

John returned a few seconds later with several cubes of ice in a Ziploc bag. Cameron had already begun helping Sarah make her way to her bedroom, but John figured he'd might as well lend her another extra hand. He attempted to move in to aid his mother, but for some reason Cameron appeared to shift her position to prevent him from making contact. He found it a little bizarre, and after a few seconds he gave up and just followed behind them. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Sarah sat roughly down onto her mattress and pulled her legs up to rest at the foot of the bed.

John watched curiously as Cameron removed Sarah's boot to take a look at her ankle. "As I suspected, there is some moderate swelling," the terminator declared.

"Here's the ice," John responded as he held the bag wrapped in a kitchen towel out in front of the cyborg.

"Thank you." Cameron said, as she turned for a brief second to acknowledge him, otherwise focusing her attention completely on Sarah as she laid the ice bag down on the woman's injured ankle.

"Your scrapes from the fall should also be disinfected and bandaged." The terminator declared.

Sarah sighed as Cameron turned to glare at John.

"Uh.. right." He said as he left to grab the first aid kit from Sarah's bathroom cabinet.

Cameron then proceeded to slip her fingers under the ice resting on Sarah's ankle to run an analysis. "It appears to be a sprain, not a break."

"Thanks for the diagnosis, Doc. Got anything for the pain?" Sarah responded sarcastically.

Whether the question was intended to mock her or not, the cyborg nevertheless slid her hand down a bit and gently pressed her fingers into Sarah's bare foot. She then began moving her thumb in a massaging motion. "Does that feel good?" she asked as she focused her doe eyes on Sarah, whose expression quickly turned sour. A foot rub from a terminator was not something she'd ever expected to experience. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Stop it!"

Cameron tilted her head innocently at Sarah's harsh expression, as if she didn't understand why the woman couldn't just accept her small favors.

"What's going on?" John asked as he returned with the kit. Cameron decided to take a step back for the moment to grant John access to his mother.

"Nothing." Sarah replied as she held out her hand to receive it.

"So Cameron, what did you think of you and Mom's movie?" John asked, leaning in to take a seat on the bed next to his mother as she began to rummage through the first aid kit to find the disinfectant and bandages.

"It was very entertaining," Cameron simply responded in monotone.

John was about to chuckle again but the terminator continued with another observation. "Your zipper is down."

John frowned as he looked down to discover his fly was indeed open. He blushed as he zipped it back up, realizing he and Riley must've been a little careless.

Sarah shook her head and bit her tongue.

"You sure you're ok?" John asked his mother to try to quickly change the subject.

Sarah turned to him and smiled. "I'll make it. You can get back to your game. Me and Tin Miss need to have a little chat anyway."

"What about?"

"I'll fill you in later, hurry up before the Xbox overheats."

John snorted. "It's not a car, Mom. It doesn't overheat if you leave it…"

"John!" she scolded him.

"Alright, alright!" he conceded and turned to leave the room.

After hearing John's video game resume, Cameron closed Sarah's door and the sound of laser gun blasts from the living room became muffled.

"Riley was here." She confided to Sarah as she turned back toward the woman who was finishing applying a band-aid to one of her cuts.

"I know." she responded with no hint of surprise in her tone.

"You do?"

"Mother's intuition. How did you know?"

"Tin Man's intuition." Cameron replied, having also noticed earlier that there had been too many empty cartons of Chinese food left on the coffee table than what John's usual appetite should've been able to handle.

Sarah smirked. "Let's talk," she said seriously.


	6. Chapter 6

John Connor breathed a sigh of relief as he resumed control of Commander Shepard, the protagonist of his new video game. Riley had gone home with only minutes to spare before his mother and cybernetic protector had returned home. He'd hoped his zipper mishap hadn't been enough to arouse suspicion over his evening's activities, but little did he know it was meanwhile the very topic of the discussion Sarah and Cameron were currently having.

"She's at best a moderate security risk." Cameron declared as she stood at the foot of Sarah's bed.

"I know." Sarah replied. "But it's not her fault, so you can't hurt her. Do you understand that?"

"Yes. I will not inflict physical harm on her. I swear." Cameron answered in her typical deadpan tone.

"You'd better be telling the truth." Sarah cautioned her.

"I am, but we are going to have to find an alternate method for separating them."

Sarah pondered the situation for a moment. "Sometimes I worry that it's not good for him to be alone," the woman admitted, "even if it is for his own protection."

"If he requires a romantic partner who would pose less of a threat to our safety, I may have one in mind." Cameron said with a slight smirk.

Sarah's eyes widened as she felt a chill run down her spine. "No way! Not under my roof." she responded sternly.

"So we'll have to move out?" Cameron asked back without missing a beat.

"Cameron!" Sarah growled.

"I am only kidding, Sarah." the cyborg replied with a full smile, her tone a little less flat.

Sarah chuckled as she breathed a sigh of relief. "Right… Still getting used to that. I'm not sure I really care for some of these little jokes of yours, Girlie."

"But you laugh at them. It feels good to laugh, doesn't it?" Cameron asked innocently.

"Getting back to Riley…" Sarah dodged in order to bring the conversation back on topic.

"Sorry." Cameron continued, "Right now I do not have an effective strategy for keeping her away. It will require more analysis and planning."

"We'll figure something out." Sarah declared with assurance. "One way or another, he can't keep bringing her over here anymore."

"Should I be concerned about you as well?"

Sarah frowned at the terminator's question. "What are you talking about?"

"You said it's not good for him to be alone, but what about you?"

"What do you mean what about me?"

"Aren't you alone?"

Sarah wasn't following Tin Miss' train of thought. What did any of this have to do with her? "This isn't about me."

"But you do not have any current love interests?"

Sarah snickered. "Why? So you can be ready to take them out if I do?" She asked back, doubting the sincerity of Cameron's benign demeanor.

"No... but you are a strong, attractive, and intelligent woman. I'm sure there is a significant number of people who would be interested in you as a mate," the cyborg articulated.

Sarah's brow furrowed. Having Cameron standing so close while seeming to hit on her was a bit startling, but after a second she realized that the terminator was just making observations for the sake of her mission, not coming on to her. That would be patently absurd.

"Well you can rest assured that's not gonna be happening anytime soon, not while I still have an apocalypse to prevent. Not that it's any of your damn business anyway," the woman snapped back.

"Do you still miss him? John's father?" Cameron asked, trying her best to sound sympathetic.

"What the hell are you trying to get at, Cameron?" Sarah snarled, growing more uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was taking by the second.

"He was a good soldier. He died protecting you. His sacrifice was not in vain," the cyborg continued softly, as if she'd just come to this realization herself.

"I'm already aware of that. What's your point in bringing it up?" Sarah asked impatiently.

"I don't know."

Sarah shook her head in frustration as Cameron's attention shifted down from Sarah's face. The terminator proceeded to lift the ice pack to re-examine Sarah's ankle.

"You should refrain from excessive physical activity for a few days, but after that the damage should heal on its own." Cameron declared.

"Fantastic," Sarah said sarcastically, "I'm sure when Derek gets back tomorrow he'll be thrilled to hear I twisted my ankle while out on a dinner and movie date with our Tin Miss."

Cameron re-established eye contact with Sarah. "This is my fault. I'm sorry," she apologized.

"Well don't let it bring you down, Sport." Sarah teased. "It's not like I'm actually gonna tell him the truth anyway."

"Who do you trust more, me or Derek?" Cameron asked. Sarah's words apparently having raised suspicion about the woman's confidence in John's uncle.

Sarah sneered. "Not giving me much a choice there, are you?"

Cameron tilted her head at Sarah, as if expecting her to elaborate.

"Although at least Derek hasn't tried to murder my son," the woman continued snidely.

"No," Cameron responded, "but the excessive amount of alcohol he consumes may be starting to impair his judgement. The other night after you and John had gone to bed, he made a pass at me. Not a very effective one."

Sarah's mouth dropped open. "What?!" she exclaimed.

"He said, 'So how well lubricated are you, Chrome Dome?' and tried to reach between my legs. I told him I do not permit that type of unauthorized contact. Then he called me a useless bitch and stumbled back onto the couch."

"That bastard!" Sarah hissed. "He and I are definitely going to have a discussion about this when he gets back tomorrow."

"I'm sorry," Cameron apologized again. "I didn't mean to make you upset."

"No, I'm glad you told me. Sometime tonight I want you to pour the rest of his booze down the fucking drain." Sarah instructed.

"I will," the cyborg confirmed, "but now you're angry. Are you sure you don't want me to rub your feet to help you relax?"

Sarah snorted, though it had been a long time since she'd had any kind of massage from anyone.

"If it's that important then be my guest, but if you tell anyone I let you, I'll solder your lips together." Sarah teased, though Tin Miss' offer was apparently too good to refuse.

Cameron once again pressed her fingers into Sarah's left foot, careful not to aggravate the injury just a few inches away. After a moment or two, Sarah had to admit to herself that Cameron was doing a pretty decent job. The massage seemed to actually be working to help dull some of the still throbbing pain in her ankle. The woman let out a heavy breath through her nose as she finally began to relax.

"I have one more question." Cameron suddenly announced as she switched the massage to Sarah's right foot. "What if there was someone who you didn't have to worry about protecting or compromising our mission? Would it be possible for you to be together with them?"

Sarah wasn't quite sure when Cameron's mission had become _their _mission and not just _her_ mission, but she nevertheless couldn't help but muse on that thought. "Sure. So where do I find this indestructible superman?"

As her thoughts drifted back to the first reprogrammed terminator John had sent back to protect them, Sarah flinched at the possible line of reasoning Cameron was taking her down. "I hope we're not talking about what I think we're talking about."

"No." Cameron clarified. "I was not referring to a man."

Sarah gave Cameron an odd look as the terminator continued the massage. "Is this another one of your jokes?"

"I don't know," Cameron answered, looking off to the side almost as if she was beginning to feel awkward.

Suddenly Sarah began to feel a bit disgusted by the fact that she was actually enjoying having her feet rubbed by Cameron.

"Then get out of my room," she snapped, jerking her right foot out of Cameron's hands. "I need to get ready for bed."

"Do you need help?" the cyborg asked as she turned her gaze back to Sarah.

"I told you I'm a big girl. I can handle it. Now leave me alone."

"Sarah…" Cameron said the woman's name in an almost whisper.

"What?"

Cameron hesitated for a moment after returning her attention to Sarah's injury, but then slowly began to lean forward.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked, beginning to cringe.

"I'm sorry about your injury. I shouldn't have distracted you from where you were walking." Cameron apologized yet again just before closing the distance and planting a quick kiss on Sarah's foot just below her injured ankle.

"Goodnight," she said, not looking up to see Sarah's expression before turning to leave the room.

The woman was in fact speechless for a few seconds before finally stammering, "C-Cameron! That was…"

"Our little secret," the cyborg replied, turning back to Sarah for a brief moment to wink at her before exiting the room and closing the door behind her.

Enraged, Sarah grabbed one of her pillows and threw it at the closed door. She couldn't very well chase down Cameron with her sore ankle, but Tin Miss was definitely going to get a bionic earful about this tomorrow


	7. Chapter 7

"Wow, what did that flower do to piss you off?" John asked, chuckling at his protector who was standing out on the back porch. Her back was turned to him as she rhythmically plucked the petals off of a daisy.

Not long after waking up, he descended the staircase on his way to the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of Frosted Flakes. He'd gotten sidetracked when he noticed Cameron outside and slid open the glass door to see what she was up to.

"It didn't piss me off," she clarified without turning to face him. "I want to know if someone feels the same way about me that I do about them."

John shook his head in confusion. "What?"

Cameron silently returned to the house, leaving the petal-less stem on the wooden steps, but carrying in an assortment of about a dozen other flowers in her hands.

John stepped out of the way to let her back inside, and watched curiously as the cyborg added the collection to a small vase sitting on the kitchen counter next to an unopened box of Raisinets.

"Are you leaving those there as a peace offering in case another machine shows up to kill me? Cause I'm pretty sure that's not gonna work," he said jokingly.

"No. And they're not for you," the terminator replied, making minor corrections to the arrangement with her fingers.

"I was just kidding, geez! Are you... feeling ok?"

John noticed Cameron twitch a little before responding. "I'm fine."

Although Cameron's apparent new hobby seemed harmless enough, the unpredictable quirks in her behavior still concerned John to some degree, considering he would most likely find himself the first one in her crosshairs should a glitch cause her Skynet directives to again resurface.

"Well what are the flowers for exactly?" he continued, "Cause uh… If you're planning on ripping them up later, would you mind if I gave them to Riley instead?"

"Yes, I would mind. They are for your mother," she replied, still perfecting the display.

"Oh, like a get well present?" John smirked. "So are you two friends now?"

Cameron's head turned slightly to the right as her arms suddenly dropped to her sides. "I don't know."

Deciding he would let it go for now, John walked into the kitchen to get to the cereal. He was about finished with his breakfast when Sarah emerged from her bedroom, her appearance a bit ruffled and disheveled.

"Morning mom." John greeted as Sarah limped into the kitchen.

"Morning," she replied, with as much of a smile as she could muster. Not sleeping well was nothing new, but last night's unexpected encounter with Tin Miss certainly hadn't helped to improve her restless state of mind.

"Do you need any help? How's your ankle?" John asked with concern.

"I'm fine. It's getting better. Still a little pain but not as bad as yesterday."

"You should still try not to walk on it." Cameron interjected as Sarah walked past her. "Would you like me to fix you a cup of coffee?"

Ignoring the terminator, Sarah's attention instead focused on the vase of flowers and box of Raisinets she found sitting on the counter. "What's all this?"

"They're for you, Sarah. I picked them myself." Cameron replied.

Although she may not have had the honesty to admit the true reason why, by now Sarah was finding Cameron's overt displays of affection toward her nothing short of nauseating. After examining the items for a few seconds, she quickly made her way over to the trash can and tossed both of them in.

"I don't know what game you think you're playing with me, but it ends now." Sarah snapped at the cyborg, who returned her fierce countenance with only the usual innocence in her expression before turning to leave the room.

"Come on, Mom. I think she was only trying to be nice, maybe she wanted to make it up to you for what happened last night," John said as he made his way to the kitchen sink to rinse out his cereal bowl.

"What, you think I hurt her feelings? You know that's absurd, John." Sarah chided as she proceeded with a new task and poured grounds into the coffee machine, as if she had something to prove.

"Well, you seem… a little more angry with her than usual. What'd you guys talk about last night after I left the room?" the boy asked as he loaded his rinsed bowl and spoon into the dishwasher.

"Mainly about Derek. Neither of us trust him, not that that gives _her_ the right to assume things are any better between her and I."

"Why? Has Derek done anything lately I should know about?"

"I was actually about to ask you that. I'm not sure how reliable he is, and I sure as hell am not babysitting him if he starts to become a liability. For starters, you and I both know he's got a bit of a drinking problem." Sarah replied as she added the water to the coffee maker and switched it on to brew.

"Well I guess I can't argue with you there..."

Sidetracking her attention from the coffee maker for a moment, Sarah checked the fridge to confirm Cameron had indeed disposed of Derek's alcohol. "Well from now on, he's not getting drunk here anymore. I had Cameron pour out the rest of his beer last night."

John snorted. "He's not gonna be happy about that. I think you should try to give him a break though, he may have a few bad habits, but I know he wants to stop Judgement Day as much as you and I do. Do you know if he found anything out about that Curtis guy yet?" John inquired regarding the lead Derek was out investigating. From their research, they'd deduced that Brad Curtis, one of the names written in blood on the outside wall, was the CEO of a small computer technology company headquartered in San Francisco. John hoped get off the subject of Derek's alcoholism as quickly as possbile considering the fact he and Riley had each snuck a few of his beers last night. Hopefully Cameron hadn't noticed the freshly discarded bottles.

"I haven't heard anything." Sarah answered. "If he doesn't call by this afternoon I'll try calling him. Don't think I forgot about you and Tin Miss' chores either."

John sighed. "But you said you liked the movie. You really can't let us off the hook?"

"I said it wasn't terrible, but a deal's a deal, kiddo," the woman replied as she grabbed a mug to fill with the freshly brewed coffee beginning to drip into the glass pot.

...

"Alright, how bout you vacuum and I'll dust?" John offered as he opened the hallway closet to gather the cleaning supplies.

"I don't understand why your mother gets angry when I try to do something nice for her," was Cameron's response as she maneuvered around him to grab the vacuum cleaner.

If he didn't know better, John would've assumed the cyborg was pouting.

"She's probably just scared you two are going to end up becoming friends," he teased.

"I don't want us to be friends." Cameron said as she plugged the vacuum cleaner into the nearby outlet and switched it on. The noise from its motor effectively cut off their conversation as she began scanning for dirt on the floor to suck up.

Meanwhile, as Sarah remained in the kitchen, sipping her coffee while she cooked herself scrambled eggs, her cell phone rang. The caller ID showed Derek's number.

"About time I heard from you." the woman answered after security codes were exchanged.

"Sorry, I was out late, overslept a little." Derek replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"Did you find out anything?" the woman sharply asked back.

"Well I found our guy, Brad Curtis. I couldn't get past security at his apartment or his office, but he had a laptop sitting in the backseat of his car. I got away with it... barely. I have it with me now."

"Have you taken a look at what's on it yet?"

"I tried but a lot of the files are encrypted so I'm probably gonna need John's help with that when I get back."

"Well, John's actually doing chores right now." Sarah explained as she peeked out into the living room to spot John dusting the coffee table. "How far out are you?"

"I got about a five hour drive from where I am now, so hopefully he'll be done by then. If not, I guess I'll just wait since I'm sure his chores are more important than this," the man replied, his sarcasm blatant this time.

"Hey, we're not exactly on vacation here! I'm going to keep researching these other names while I wait for you to get back, and we also need to talk about something else when you get back too. Just the two of us."

"You mean like a date?"

"In your dreams. Just hurry up and get your ass back here." Sarah replied just before hanging up. She then looked back down at the pan on the stovetop to realize her eggs were now overcooked.

"Shit!" she hissed as she discarded the crispy dark brown mess down the garbage disposal.

…

"So, are we even now?" John asked his mother, who'd just finished eating the results of her second, more successful attempt at cooking her breakfast.

"Let's take a look," she replied, rising from the table for a quick tour of the house.

After Sarah's inspection, she'd decided John and Cameron's cleanup was acceptable.

"I guess I'm satisfied," she declared, looking over her bedroom, the last stop of the tour. "Derek called. He's on his way back now with a laptop he snatched from Curtis. He wants you to help him decrypt it, but before that there's one more thing I'd like you and Cameron to do today," the woman explained as she met eyes with her son.

"Does that mean it's optional?"

Sarah almost laughed. "You two should go get us a Christmas tree."

John's eyes widened. "Are you feeling ok, Mom?"

"Come on, you know you want one," she teased. "We need to work on our sense of unity, especially during the holidays. That includes Derek too. I want us to start behaving like a family. We may be a bit dysfunctional but this is all we have." Sarah explained, intentionally excluding Cameron. While she had mixed feelings about John's uncle, maybe she could help bring out his redeeming qualities by getting him off the booze. Cameron on the other hand was, after all, a machine, a tool, a necessary evil at best. Something only to be considered part of the family to deceive strangers who'd be better off not knowing what she actually was.

"Go on, I'll have a sandwich ready for you when you get back," Sarah promised, her mood better after having breakfast and coffee.

"I think I'm old enough to make myself a sandwich, Mom. I do it all the time."

"Then you're old enough to understand why this is important for us."

"Alright, fine." he acquiesced.

John found his protector downstairs in the living room, having returned to her usual spot for standing guard during the day.

"Come on," he said, beckoning to Cameron. "We're going shopping."

"What is the purpose of a Christmas tree?" the terminator asked as she began to follow him, having overheard their conversation.

"I'll explain on the way there." he replied as he grabbed his mother's keys, not surprised the cyborg had been eavesdropping. He was well acquainted with her superhuman hearing by now.

"I don't understand why your mother wants us to bring back a tree when she didn't find my flower arrangement acceptable." Cameron said as she climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. John wondered why she was still acting upset over his mother, but figured he might as well play along if she was trying this hard to give him that impression.

"Well, maybe you should try getting her something else," He replied as he started the engine. "The whole point of Christmas is to exchange gifts with other people, so here's your chance to try again. You know, get her something she might like better and put it under the tree," the boy continued to explain as they pulled out of the driveway. "Mom gets sentimental around Christmas. I think when she was a kid it was really important to her. She tries to pretend its not such a big deal now but I know it is."

"What kind of gift do you think she would like?" Cameron asked.

"Well, that's the part you gotta figure out," the boy replied with a smirk. "Maybe try something practical."

"Like a bazooka?"

John snickered. "Maybe if you want her to use it on you."

He met eyes with Cameron for a second as she glared at him, clearly not amused by his words.

"Well, you still have a couple weeks to think about it," he attempted to continue seriously, "Just make sure you wrap it," he clarified as Cameron listened intently. "You won't want her to know what it is until it's time to open it."

Cameron wasn't sure if John was just trying to make fun of her at this point, or sincerely trying to help. She nevertheless wanted further elaboration. "Thank you for explaining… but you still haven't told me the purpose of the tree. Why is it required for the gift exchange?"

"uh... it's just something everyone kinda does, I don't really know why."

Cameron pondered as they continued driving. She had been planning on revealing Sarah's surprise tonight, but after the woman's negative reaction to the gifts she'd offered earlier this morning, it could be more optimal to postpone it until the holiday. Perhaps then Sarah might be in a more receptive mood for what she had planned.


	8. Chapter 8

"Ok, I think that's enough ornaments." John said as he tossed a third box of the shiny, multicolored balls into the shopping cart. "Let's get some lights."

"Why does the tree require illumination?" Cameron asked as they stepped into the next aisle in the temporary Christmas section of the department store.

"It's just for decoration."

"Like nail polish?"

"Uh… yeah like nail polish…" John answered as he examined several boxes of colored lights, trying to figure out how many he would need.

"Who is Santa Claus?" Cameron asked, her attention on the other side of the aisle, where plastic decorative signs that said "Parking Reserved for Santa Claus" were on display.

"Just a guy who parents tell their kids will bring them presents on Christmas if they've been good all year," John replied, amused as he placed two boxes of lights in the cart.

"And does he?" Cameron asked back seriously.

"No. He's not real."

"Doesn't that make the kids disappointed?"

"No, because most parents give their kids presents and just say they're from Santa Claus."

"That does not make sense. Why give someone a gift and say it's from someone else?"

"I don't know. It's just tradition," the boy explained as he began pushing the cart forward again. "Come on, let's go pick out a tree."

"Humans have strange traditions," Cameron continued.

"Yeah. I guess they do…" John answered, though he wasn't disappointed at the potential to have a little sense of normalcy, even for just a month.

…

The front door of the Connor household came swinging abruptly open as John and Cameron were busy hanging ornaments on the tree that now stood in the middle of the living room.

Derek Reese was less than pleased to stumble upon the sight as he walked in. "You guys can't be serious…"

"It was Mom's idea, believe it or not," John responded.

"I guess my priorities must be a little mixed up. I thought we were busy trying to save the world, not teach that bucket of bolts holiday decorating."

"Come on, man. We're trying to get into the Christmas spirit, don't be a Scrooge." John teased.

Derek shook his head. "Well I got a laptop I'm gonna need your help decrypting, stole it from Curtis." Derek said, holding out the computer for John to take.

"Yeah, Mom already filled me in." John said as Derek handed it over.

"Can you finish up the tree, while me and Derek take a look at the laptop?" John asked, turning to Cameron.

The cyborg stared at him but didn't answer.

"It's easy, just hang the rest of the ornaments, not too close together, and then you just gotta wrap the lights around it… Oh, and plug them in so we can make sure they work."

Sarah cleared her throat to gain their attention. She'd walked into the room after hearing Derek come in, but no one had bothered to acknowledge her. "I'd like to speak to you for a minute. In private," she announced, glaring in Derek's direction.

"Nice to see you too," the man replied sarcastically.

"Why are you limping?" Derek asked, following Sarah into her bedroom as John headed upstairs to start tinkering with the laptop.

"I was carrying groceries for Kaci, tripped over one of those damn garden gnomes in her yard."

"Those things give me the creeps. So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked as Sarah shut the door behind them.

"I've been digging up what I can about Kary Corp." Sarah explained, referring to the research she'd been doing on Brad Curtis' company. "Turns out they're apparently under investigation for supposedly receiving laundered money from a drug cartel. Shady character your friend, Mr. Curtis. They also have a tight-lipped computational neuroscience division. Something about human brain emulation… whatever that means…"

"Could be Skynet trying to figure out how we think," Derek speculated.

"Maybe. We need to find out what's on that laptop."

"Right… Which is why we're having John do just that. So why did this need to be a private conversation exactly?"

"There's something else," Sarah declared sternly.

Derek gave the woman an odd look. "Such as?"

"Tell me I didn't hear about you making inebriated passes at Cameron the other night," she continued, laying it out for him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked back, sounding frustrated at the accusation.

"Does trying to reach between her legs and asking her how well lubricated she is ring any bells?"

"Uh.. I don't remember…" he answered nonchalantly. "Did _it_ tell you I did that?"

Sarah gave him a disgusted look but said nothing.

"Maybe I did," he admitted. "What difference does it make? You wanna interrogate me about it?"

"Come on, that kind of shit is unacceptable, and you know it. Next time I hope Cameron gives you a good kick in the balls. What if John had heard you?"

"What if he had? Don't expect me to treat that thing like it's a person," Derek defended as he stared Sarah coldy in the face. As a resistance fighter, he'd actually fought the war against Skynet post Judgement Day. Having witnessed firsthand the immeasurable pain and suffering the machines had caused, he didn't feel that she had any right to tell him how to treat one of them.

"That's not the point!" Sarah growled.

"Hey, don't act like I'm the one who wants it around. I told you it's not a good idea to have it in the house, living here like it's one of us."

"Why? Because you can't control yourself around her?"

"No, because you and I both know it's gonna have to go eventually. John's not gonna like it but..."

"It's not the only thing that's gonna have to go," Sarah said, cutting him off. "I poured out the rest of your booze."

"What?!"

"Yeah. No crying, it's already done."

Angered, Derek looked away for a moment as he bit his bottom lip before turning back to Sarah. "You know, if you're gonna start defending the metal over me then they're already winning. That's what they want. It's trying to get inside your head."

Sarah then looked down for a second as she pondered that thought. Cameron did seem to be going out of her way lately to butter her up. Was it all a ploy to gain leverage over all of them? Even still, she didn't want John to have to spend Christmas with each member of the household at each other's throats constantly.

"I'm not anymore a fan of the metal than you, you know that," she stated as her gaze turned back on Derek. "But John could use some stability, at least during the holidays. For his sake let's at least try to tolerate her and act like a family... and not one that belongs on Jerry Springer. Besides, we both know Cameron can protect him better than either of us."

Derek sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it… well, when she's not trying to kill him herself that is..."

"He made his choice. I've accepted it, so can you, and let's get one more thing straight, from now on, you don't touch her. Ever. Got that? And no more alcohol in the house until New Year's."

Derek took a deep breath before he responded. "For John, i'll try. But without booze, no promises… and I'll tolerate the tree, but if anyone around here starts singing Christmas carols you guys are on your own."

Sarah shook her head at the quip. "I need to start dinner," she said, heading out of the room.

"What are we having?"

"Beef Stroganoff"

"Beef Stroganoff? You feeling adventurous?"

Sarah stopped in the doorway and turned to gave him a fake smile. "Just for that, you can do the dishes."

Overhearing the conversation as she continued to work on the tree, Cameron smiled to herself. Sarah coming to her defense had renewed enough of her confidence to strongly consider not postponing the woman's surprise. Now she would just have to test the water later tonight and hope for the best.

Following Sarah into the kitchen, Derek opened the fridge to grab some of his leftover chicken wings from the other night.

"I'm about to start dinner," Sarah scolded.

"Sorry, can't wait. I'm already starving," Derek replied as he tossed the wings in the microwave, then proceeded to discard the aluminum foil they'd been wrapped in when he noticed the box of Raisinets in the trash can.

"Who threw away a perfectly good box of Raisinets?"

"You want them? Take them," Sarah responded curtly.

"Out of the trash?"

"They're still sealed."

"Fine," the man replied, fishing out the box and wiping it off with his shirt.

After he'd finished his wings, Derek popped a few Rasinets in his mouth as he made his way to John's room to see how the decryption of the laptop was coming. Cameron took her attention off finishing up the tree for a second to frown in his direction.

"How's it coming?" he asked as he stepped into his nephew's bedroom.

"Just getting started, this is probably gonna take all night," John replied, sitting on his bed pounding away on the keyboard of Curtis' laptop.

"You ever gonna redecorate this room?" Derek teased over the bedroom decor, which was meant for a young child.

"Eventually. Where'd you get those Raisinets?" the boy asked, wondering if Derek had actually dug the candy out of the trash.

"Someone threw them away. Was it you?"

John shrugged. "Nah. I think Mom's on a diet or something."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Just like all the women in this timeline. Where I come from we don't waste perfectly good food."

Pacing around in John's room as he popped a few more pieces of candy in his mouth, Derek spied Riley's DVD sitting on top of John's dresser. "The 40 Year Old Virgin?"

"It's Riley's. She accidentally left it here."

"Your girlfriend?" Derek snickered. "Is she trying to tell you something? Maybe I should give you a few pointers."

"So about this laptop…"

…

As John and Derek hustled down the stairs after hearing Sarah call them to dinner, John found Cameron hanging out in the living room next to the tree, now fully decorated and illuminated.

"Hey, nice job," he complimented the terminator. "I knew you could do it."

"Thank you," she replied as everyone made their way to the dining table.

Once they were done eating, Derek complied with Sarah's demand that he clean the dishes, not wanting to aggravate her further after their earlier conversation. He may not have agreed with her completely regarding Cameron, but they were still going to have to learn how to cooperate better if they were going to have a chance of winning the war. He returned to John's room afterward, eager to see what his nephew could uncover from the stolen computer.

Sarah decided to leave the boys to their work, giving John some time to spend with his uncle as she sat on her bed with more research paperwork on Kary Corp. scattered about the comforter. As she skimmed over them, she suddenly heard a knock at her door.

"Come in," she said, assuming it was John.

To her surprise, Cameron came walking in. An unbuttoned skin tight black jacket was all that covered her upper body short of a black lace bra underneath that was in full view. Short cutoff jean shorts hugged her hips, but revealed her long slender legs. Her feet were bare and her toenails as well as her fingernails were freshly painted hot pink.

Sarah was aghast at the sight. "Cameron? Did you change? What have I told you about dressing that way in front of John?!"

"I'm not in front of John. I'm in front of you," the terminator stated calmly in response.

"Well, what the hell do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?" the woman snapped, hoping Cameron wasn't about to start acting weird again.

The cyborg slowly took a few steps toward Sarah's bed and began to speak softly, "I overheard what you said to Derek earlier. I know you don't trust me… but you defended me anyway. I just wanted to say… thank you."

"That's nice, you can get lost now, and put some damn clothes back on." Sarah replied, turning her eyes back on the paperwork, hoping Tin Miss would take a hint.

"How is your research coming?" Cameron asked, stopping just short of the edge of Sarah's bed.

"It's… Well these guys are definitely up to something. I hope John and Derek can figure out what from whatever's on that laptop."

"They will be working on the decryption for hours. I thought it might be a good time for your surprise. Why don't you take a break?"

Sarah gasped as she looked back up to see Cameron take a seat on her bed next to her, some of the papers crinkling underneath the terminator who paid them no heed.

"What do you think your doing?" she growled as she slammed the paper in her hand down on the bed with her palm.

Cameron precisely shifted her position to behind Sarah and put her hands on the woman's shoulders before she could react.

"Hey, hold it! What the hell?!" Sarah hissed as she started to squirm, but the terminator's grip held her in place. The woman's nose crinkled as the aroma of some kind of perfume crept into her nostrils.

"Let me go, now!" She snarled, trying to keep her voice down as best she could in case Cameron was malfunctioning. If the terminator had again become a threat to John, she couldn't let herself be used as a hostage. The only thing she'd want anyone to hear her shout would be for Derek to get him out of the house as fast as possible.

"Just relax. This is part of your surprise." Cameron tried to reassure her as she began applying pressure to Sarah's upper back. "I've been researching various massaging techniques. I don't sleep."

Sarah grunted as the cyborg continued, though she figured she may as well relent if Cameron was this determined. She could only hope the cyborg's intentions were genuinely benign. After a minute or two however, she'd have been lying if she said Cameron didn't seem to be doing a decent job so far at loosening up the stiffness in her muscles. She'd assumed the flower display and candy from this morning had been her "surprise", but Tin Miss had been more creative than she'd given her credit for. It might've been possible a small part of her was starting to enjoy being sucked up to. After all, it wasn't like anyone else was getting in line to pamper her.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, still wanting some kind of explanation.

"Because I want to." Cameron answered as she smoothed out a particularly tight knot in Sarah's back and the woman involuntarily moaned. Smiling at that, Cameron leaned in and whispered breathily, "And because you want me to."

"Shut up." Sarah mumbled as Cameron continued for a few more minutes before suddenly stopping.

"Ok, I'll admit, that wasn't bad." Sarah chuckled, trying to laugh off some of the awkward tension. "Nice to know you can do more than just feet. So that's all I get?" Sarah turned around to observe that Cameron had removed her jacket, which the cyborg then carelessly tossed to the floor.

"I can do whatever you want," Cameron said, putting a seductive inflection on her tone.

"Whoa! That's it! No more, we're done!" Sarah exclaimed as she turned to reach for her 9mm pistol that was resting on the nightstand, but Cameron grabbed her arm just as she was able to reach the gun.

"Come on, Sarah, you know better than that," the terminator said as gently as possible.

"Get away from me…" Sarah muttered, trying to maintain her anger but felt it giving way to a different sensation altogether, a sensation she'd been desperately trying to bury for quite some time now.

Cameron carefully pushed down on Sarah's arm to set the gun back on the nightstand. Sarah shivered as she released her grip on the gun, realizing it would be of little use anyway. She'd been overpowered by Cameron before, but this wasn't the same. It wasn't so much fear she felt as she stared deep into Cameron's dark brown eyes…

"It's ok," Cameron said softy as the cyborg moved her hand up from Sarah's arm and reached under her chin.

"What are you…"

"I told you, I'm broadening my horizons. It's time for _your_ taste test." Cameron replied before Sarah could even finish as she slowly pulled the woman closer.

"I can't, Cameron," Sarah protested, but without physically resisting at all.

"Yes you can." Cameron assured her. The terminator's eyes shut as she closed the distance and locked lips with the woman. Sarah inhaled sharply through her nose as Cameron covered her mouth with her own. Sarah could've sworn she'd heard a soft moan come from Tin Miss as the cyborg's tongue infiltrated its way into her mouth. The kiss deepening, Sarah's body tingled as her dormant libido sprung back to life. The woman ran her fingers through Cameron's hair as she began to return some of the cyborg's apparent hunger for her. The make-out continued for another minute or two before Sarah disconnected and slowly pulled back. Cameron allowed her the brief respite, but kept her hands in place on the woman's hips.

"Damn you, Girlie," Sarah whispered, but her willpower had already crumbled at the release her body craved and Cameron was eagerly willing to provide.

Tin Miss carefully removed Sarah's shirt and discarded it to the floor. A quick flick of her fingers and Sarah's bra followed. She then placed her hands on Sarah's shoulders and eased the woman backward until she was lying down and Cameron hovered over top of her, bracing herself on either side of Sarah.

Cameron planted a kiss on Sarah's neck, then another on her collarbone, then she paused for a moment as she noticed Sarah's bare nipples had become erect. The cyborg moved in until her mouth was on Sarah's left breast, her tongue dancing all over the nipple. Sarah's head tilted back as she let out a heavy moan. Cameron continued for a minute before she switched breasts. She could feel Sarah's body communicating with her in ways she probably still wasn't quite comfortable acknowledging at this point. Cameron paused again, a smile on her face displaying her satisfaction. "You passed my taste test," she announced as she moved down slowly until her face was just above Sarah's lower abdomen.

"What are you doing now, then?" Sarah asked, slightly short of breath as Cameron began to undo her belt.

"Extra credit."


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah knew she shouldn't want this. Letting Cameron take her this way was likely just playing into whatever scheme the terminator had concocted to get Sarah to let go of some more of her animosity, but Tin Miss had been too effective at putting Sarah under her spell. Right now Sarah simply craved the release she could bring her too much to use better judgement. She _was _feeling conflicted, but if she thought about it too long she would go crazy.

Sensing Sarah's hesitation, and not wanting to give the woman too much time to think, with a mischievous smile Cameron lowered her head. As she Exhaled against Sarah's navel after kissing it, her nimble fingers worked to undo the button of Sarah's jeans. The cyborg's head then dipped down further as she proceeded to use her teeth to undo the zipper.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Sarah anxiously asked. "I'd really prefer not to get mutilated, especially in… certain places."

Cameron actually chuckled at Sarah's words. "I have many subroutines, Sarah. I know what I'm doing."

"I'll bet. What good is an infiltrator who can't..."

Before Sarah could finish, Cameron's face was back up close to hers as she silenced the woman by pressing her thumb gently to her lips.

"Shhh… There's nothing wrong. Just relax and let me please you." the cyborg reassured her as she guided her thumb over to Sarah's cheek to softly stroke it back and forth.

"You're so beautiful," she whispered.

"You're a fucking liar," Sarah snapped back.

Cameron's smile faded as she tilted her head slightly to the side at Sarah's response. "We'll see about that," she replied as she maneuvered her body downward.

Sarah's hips rose of their own volition as Tin Miss slowly peeled her jeans off. Cameron was careful to remove Sarah's pants gently enough to not aggravate her sore ankle. Cameron stared into the woman's anxious green eyes as she inhaled an artificial breath, hooking her fingers around the rim of Sarah's panties and slowly sliding them down.

Her sex exposed, Sarah took a deep breath of her own as she prepared to let Cameron have her way. She knew this should feel terribly wrong, but something in her had almost been expecting this, as if her baser instincts had been preparing for it the stronger her denial had grown. Now that the moment had finally arrived, she was forced to admit to herself that this was something she'd been secretly hoping for.

Sarah inhaled sharply again as Cameron teased her by planting a few kisses on each of her inner thighs, shifting closer to her target with each one.

_Fuck_, Sarah thought as she approached the point of no return. She raised her hand, considering for a brief second or two to push Cameron away and tell her to stop, but instead she yielded. Cameron flicked her tongue against her clit as Sarah's fingers wound up tangled in silky hair, pressing the girl closer. A low, soft moan escaped Sarah's lips. Cameron's hair was so easy to get lost in, her tongue so easy to get distracted by, her lips so… eager. Sarah's hips rose again, fingers of her right hand still twisted in the girl's locks, her other hand fisted in the sheets.

All the tension and loneliness she'd been holding onto for months was slowly giving way to a new sweet sensation, one that started deep inside and spread slowly outward until her whole body was tingling and hovering on the edge of oblivion.

Sensing how close the woman was, Cameron doubled the intensity of her assault. Her tongue and lips went into overdrive as she cupped Sarah's ass with one hand, holding her steady. Stopping just long enough to clear the way for her index and middle fingers, she thrusted them inside Sarah, working in a steady rhythm until the woman finally came undone. The high-frequency of Sarah's next moan and tightening of the fist in her hair let the cyborg know her instincts were spot on.

After a moment Sarah's grip loosened and her body started to relax. Satisfied she'd done all she could to pleasure the woman for the time being, Cameron brought her two fingers up to her mouth and began to lick them clean as Sarah tried to catch her breath. Sarah watched her, wondering if Tin Miss had any idea how fiendishly erotic that was or if all this was still just part of her so-called "taste test", satisfying the curiosity of a machine designed to learn.

A machine… designed to learn... the thought struck a nerve with Sarah. She unwound her hand from the cyborg's hair and sat up. "Get off of me!" she hissed, but Cameron only stared back with innocence and confusion in her soft brown eyes. "What's wrong? I believe I stimulated you quite effectively, culminating in your climax 1 minute and 43 seconds ago. You should be feeling relaxed and satisfied."

"I think I'm gonna throw up."

"Why?"

"I… I can't believe I just… let you fuck me…" Sarah stammered. "You're… not even human."

"Could you tell the difference?"

"That's not the point!" Sarah growled before shaking her head. "Get out… You tell _anyone_ about this and your ass is as good as terminated. No second chances, understand?"

"I understand…" Cameron said with a pouty expression returning to her face. Sliding out from between Sarah's legs, she gave her fingers another look. "You enjoyed yourself, Sarah. I tasted it," she said with a smirk.

"Just go…" Sarah responded, looking away.

"I can help you…"

"Now!" She demanded, turning her angry gaze back on the cyborg as she covered her body with the bedsheet.

"Fine, Sarah, I will leave, but I know how much you've done for everyone, how much you will do… You shouldn't deny yourself some release once in a while," she continued as she collected the woman's clothes back up off the floor and handed them back. She then slipped her black jacket back on before she headed to the door.

Sarah could only bury her face in her pillow as she contemplated how things had gone so far so quickly, and wondering if there was any tequila left in the house. She silently cursed herself, remembering she had already told Cameron to dump everything the previous night.

She got dressed, and after collecting the half of her research that was now scattered about her bedroom floor and sorting it back together as best she could, she decided instead to do some exercising.

Meanwhile, putting back on some more conservative clothing, Cameron returned to pacing about the house, her normal nightly patrolling routine. Upstairs, Derek continued to observe as John worked on getting access to the files on Curtis' laptop. It was sometime around 2 a.m. when John exclaimed, "I think I've almost got it!"

"You said that an hour and a half ago," Derek replied with a yawn.

"I know but this time I think I'm close, really."

"Alright well, I'm gonna take a leak real quick. Maybe by the time I get back, we'll be able to start figuring out what's on this thing?"

"Maybe…"

When Derek returned, John had closed the laptop and was staring off to the side, like he was in a daze.

"What happened? Why'd you stop?" Derek asked. "I thought you almost had it."

"I...uh..." John stammered, trying to refocus. "Are you sure you got this laptop from the right guy?"

"Yeah, his name is Brad Curtis, same name written in blood on our wall. What's the problem? What'd you find on there?"

"Uh... see for yourself..." John said as he reopened the computer and turned it around for Derek to see.

...

After Sarah had done a fair amount of sit-ups, push-ups, and some jogging in place right there in her bedroom, she'd taken a long, hot shower but couldn't shake off the guilt now plaguing her mind. By the time she dried herself off however, she was too exhausted to care, at least for tonight. Tearing the sheets off of her bed and replacing them with a fresh, clean set, she curled up into them and within minutes, she was dead to the world.

Cameron waited until she heard Sarah's breathing turn to a soft snore as she listened carefully just outside the woman's bedroom door. Satisfied that Sarah had finally fallen asleep, she reached into her pocket and pulled out one of her bobby pins to pick the lock on Sarah's door. As quietly as possible, she disengaged the lock and tiptoed forward into the darkness of Sarah's room.

Using her night vision, she crept up to the edge of Sarah's bed and cautiously pulled up the sheets to expose the woman's bare feet. With a smirk, she reached into her pocket again, this time pulling out her bottle of pink nail polish.

...

"Wow, she's really letting him have it," Derek chuckled as he watched the video play on the laptop screen. A young woman, clad in a black and red vinyl corset and miniskirt, as well as knee-high stilletto boots and black gloves, was smacking around a middle-aged man crawling around the floor in his underwear. He appeared to be the same man from the photo of Curtis John had seen earlier, balding, grey hair, but otherwise in decent physical shape. The dominatrix whipped him several times repeatedly with a riding crop while continuously berating him, calling him cruel names and telling him how useless he was.

"Are you _sure_ you got this from the right Brad Curtis?" John asked.

"The guy runs a high-tech company with a computational neuroscience division, does that sound like Skynet to you? Just because he's kinky doesn't mean..."

"Alright, alright. Well, either way I think I've seen enough for one night," John said, getting up from the bed. "I broke the encryption, you should have access to the whole hard drive now..."

"Hang on, hang on, what's she doing now? Is that a candle?" Derek asked, transfixed on the video as he leaned in and took a seat on the bed in John's place.

John stood by with his arms crossed for another minute or two, listening to the man in the video grovel to his mistress. "I really need to go to bed..."

"Come on, what if the best is yet to come?" Derek asked, smiling in amusement at his nephew's adverse reaction.

"I'll take my chances..." John replied, rubbing his eyes as he let out a yawn.

"Alright, fine," Derek conceded, closing the laptop and getting up from the bed. "I'll snoop around on here some more and see what else I can find... aside from the kinky stuff I mean."

John smiled. "Yeah, sure," he teased.

"I'll let you know in the morning," Derek said as he was leaving the room, taking the laptop with him.

"Alright, g'night."

"Sweet dreams," Derek replied sarcastically as he exited.

...

Cameron knew it was a risk. She couldn't calculate with certainty that she'd be able to pull off the prank without waking Sarah, but fortunately, aside from some minor stirring, the woman appeared to be out cold.

As she began to paint Sarah's toenails, the tempation to crawl into the bed and snuggle up next to her was almost overwhelming, but after Cameron had gone to work applying a coat of pink polish to each of Sarah's toes, she only stood silently in the darkness for half an hour waiting for it to dry. At this point, she knew Sarah was already upset with her, and waking up in the morning to having pink toenails would probably only fuel her anger, but Cameron wasn't going to allow Sarah to ignore her or pretend like tonight had never happened. She knew Sarah needed someone, the fact that she'd let Cameron go as far as she had proved that. As she pulled the sheets back over Sarah's feet and exited the room, she could only hope that someday soon the woman would be ready to accept her affection.

**Thanks for reading, and extra special thanks for the reviews. Any and all feedback is appreciated. And once again thanks to wheresmyluce for helping me with ideas for this story. To be continued soon...**


	10. Chapter 10

Derek Reese's eyelids were growing heavier by the minute as he sat on the living room sofa with Curtis' laptop, poring over the files on his hard drive, as well as his web history. Aside from the weird fetish video, he hadn't come across anything particularly interesting in the hour or so he'd spent searching so far. Finally succumbing to the lure of slumber, he was just about to doze off when he was aroused by some commotion just audible enough to gain his attention. Looking over his shoulder, he could make out Cameron's slender form in the darkness. He watched as she carefully closed Sarah's bedroom door behind her.

"What were you doing in Sarah's room?" he asked, half mumbling from just nearly having fallen asleep.

"None of your business," the cyborg replied as she resumed her nightly pacing.

"You two having some kind of slumber party or something?"

"No. I was just painting her toenails."

"What?!" Derek exclaimed, unable to completely process that answer.

"Keep your voice down," Cameron responded sternly. "She's asleep. If you wake her up I might throw you out the window."

"Go ahead, I dare you," the man taunted. "Why the hell would Sarah want you to paint her toenails?"

"She didn't ask me too. It's a surprise for when she wakes up."

Derek snorted. "Yeah? Well, she might throw _you_ out the window when she finds out you painted her toes in her sleep."

"I bet she'll still like me better than you."

Irritated by her dig at him, Derek rose from the couch and stood over the terminator, staring her down as he spoke quietly but with more than a hint of anger in his tone, "You think kissing her ass is going to help your case? I told you before, you may have fooled them but not me. I'm on to your little schemes, and they're not going to work. Whatever you have planned, _I will _put a stop to it."

Cameron's eyes flashed blue, startling Derek for a second as she rigidly stood before him unintimidated.

"Stay away from my Sarah or you'll be sorry," she warned before she walked past the man and out the front door into the night.

"Your Sarah?!" Derek gasped, befuddled as Cameron shut the door behind her.

Derek turned to glance in the direction of Sarah's bedroom. He was definitely going to have a conversation with her about Cameron's bizarre behavior tomorrow.

...

Sarah stood in front of her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she attempted to process the thought patterns running through her brain. It was still difficult for her to accept that the events from the previous night had actually happened. As she splashed warm water on her face, she mentally prepared for the awkwardness of having to face Cameron again.

She cautiously made her way into the living room, a limp still lingering in her step. Derek was sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee, resuming his work on the laptop while the terminator sat on the floor, up close to the TV, with the volume barely audible to human ears.

"Morning," Sarah greeted John's uncle, hoping she could just ignore Tin Miss for now.

"Morning, you'll never guess what I found on this thing."

"Anything that looks like it has to do with Skynet?"

"Not exactly, why don't you have a cup of coffee? You'll want to be fully awake when I tell you what we're dealing with here."

"Great…" Sarah replied as she started to make her way into the kitchen.

"Nice toes by the way," Derek added just before Sarah had left the room.

Sarah stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face the man. Derek raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her feet. Turning her attention downward, Sarah was aghast to discover a fresh coat of hot pink nail polish had been applied to her toenails.

Cameron smiled to herself but kept her attention fixated on the television.

Sarah's mouth dropped open as she met eyes with Derek again.

"Cyborg did it," He stated with an air of satisfaction, assuming Sarah's response toward Cameron would be less than amicable.

As Sarah's attention immediately shifted to Cameron, she noticed the program on the TV screen behind her was some type of children's programming.

"What are you doing?" she growled.

"Watching a television show. It's called 'My Life as a Teenage Robot'." Cameron replied innocently, turning around to face the woman.

"I don't care, turn it off, and meet me outside, now!" Sarah demanded.

As Cameron followed Sarah onto the front porch, Derek kept his attention on the laptop, but smiled smugly to himself at the earful Cameron was about to get.

"Did you paint my toenails?!" Sarah asked desperately after closing the front door.

"Yes." Cameron simply replied.

"Why?!" Sarah hissed.

"To look pretty, something you wouldn't understand," she replied with a smirk, echoing Sarah's accusatory words to her from the other night.

"You think you've got this all figured out don't you?!" Sarah growled, grabbing Cameron by the shoulders and shaking her petite frame.

"I never said that. We still have much we can learn from each other," the terminator answered in a more serious tone.

Sarah shook her head as she pressed her lips together angrily. "No. You listen to me, and you listen good. Whatever you're trying to do to me, it has to stop!"

Cameron's eyes widened. "But don't you like me? Even just a little bit?"

"We are at war! Don't you understand that?!"

"But I'm different."

"No. You're not."

"But last night…"

"Was a mistake! And you will never touch me again," Sarah stated as she pointed her index finger in Cameron's face. "From now on, you so much as look at me in a way that makes me uncomfortable and I'll have you dismantled limb from limb, got that?"

The two women stood eye-to-eye for a few seconds before Cameron responded, "Is that really what you want?"

Sarah took a deep breath. "What I want, is for you to make yourself useful, the way you're supposed to. The way _a machine_ is supposed to."

"I just thought…"

"You thought wrong."

"Fine, Sarah. I won't bother you anymore. I'm sorry," Cameron said ruefully as she turned and walked further down the driveway. Sarah watched her for another minute or two until Cameron had walked all the way down the street towards the exit of the neighborhood.

"You two have a nice little chat?" Derek asked sarcastically as Sarah re-entered the house.

"It doesn't concern you."

"Excuse me? I'm pretty sure it does. Don't you get it? It's trying to test you, and if you can't stay in control of that thing then maybe I'll..."

"Enough! I already have a lot on my mind right now, I don't need to deal anymore with your fucking attitude. Cameron's been dealt with. Let's get back to our lead."

"Alright, alright!" Derek responded, raising his hands in surrender.

"So what's on this laptop?" Sarah asked, stealing a sip from Derek's coffee and tying to quell her temper.

"Seems our friend Mr. Curtis is a little... shall we say, deviant."

"Morning," John interrupted, making his way down the stairs. "Oh man, did you see it yet, Mom?"

"See what?"

"You'd better behave yourself, slave!" came the woman's voice from the video, Derek having loaded it.

"What the hell is this?" Sarah asked.

"That... is Mr. Curtis getting smacked around by one of those dominatrix chicks," Derek replied matter-of-factly.

"That's enough. If your pulling my leg I'm going to kick your ass."

"How do you know I'm not into that?"

"You didn't seem too into it last time. Is there anything on here relevant to our mission or not?" Sarah asked as Derek turned to glare at her.

"There's a few contractual documents with reference to his research in cognitive neuroscience, but not detailing the nature of the work he's doing as far as I can tell. Something else about a proposed partnership with another company called... Eden Technologies, Inc."

"Eden Technologies? I'm not exactly liking the sound of that... John can you go online sometime today and see what you can dig up on whatever they are?"

"Sure," the boy replied, still trying to suppress a chuckle from his mother's reaction to the kinky video.

"Sarah..." Derek continued. "I have access to his personal email account. There's nothing in it business related but I did find this little gem."

Turning the screen around for Sarah to see, Derek waited patiently for a reaction.

"I'm not sure if I'm following," Sarah said as she gazed upon an electronic flyer for an event happening next weekend in downtown San Fancisco called the "Winter Wonderland Fetish Fest".

"He's already RSVPed, Sarah," Derek continued, "Could be an opportunity to go in undercover and..."

Sarah chuckled. "It says here there's a strict dress code. Guess you'd better go out and find a pair of spandex, and maybe one of those mask... things."

"I'm not talking about me!" Derek snapped. "This guy's obviously got a kink for being dominated by a woman. We might be able to use that to our advantage, I think we should send the metal in. If she can seduce him, it could help us find out what his company is working on."

"Cameron?!" John gasped.

"Yeah... Cameron." Derek confirmed. "Infiltration, it's what she does remember? Unless you wanna go in there dressed like one of those freaks..." he said, turning to Sarah.

"I'll do it," Sarah declared.

John's jaw dropped. "Oh God... Mom, you can't be serious..." he said, unsure whether to laugh or gag.

"It's either me or Cameron, John, and if there's a chance this guy is helping to build Skynet, we can't risk her being captured. Besides, I don't even know when she's coming back."

"What do you mean?"

"She left a couple minutes before you came downstairs. I don't know where she went."

"Really? That's weird..." John remarked, finding it odd that Cameron would simply leave early in the morning without explanation.

"Your mom chewed her out for painting her toenails," Derek interjected.

"Cameron painted your toenails?" John asked, snickering as he looked down and saw the pink polish on his mother's toes.

"She did it while I was asleep," Sarah clarified.

"Wow," John said, barely able to contain his laughter. "I guess she paid you back for making us clean the house."

"She did," Sarah replied. "And then I let her have it, which is probably why she left."

"Wait a minute... She left because you yelled at her?! And we don't even know where she is?"

While Sarah also found the idea of a missing terminator unsettling, she also couldn't deny the fact that having Cameron gone, at least for a little while, could help take her mind off of what had happened last night and make it easier to focus on the mission. "John I'm sure she's just..."

"She'll be back." Derek interjected nonchalantly.

John shook his head. While he had his own issues with his cybernetic protector, he nonetheless found it frustrating that his mother and uncle could act so infantile over wanting to get rid of her. Without saying anything else, John walked briskly to the front door, hand reaching in his pocket for his cell phone. He retrieved it from his pocket and slammed the door behind him.

"She'll be back, and so will he." Derek reiterated to Sarah, sounding less than concerned over the ordeal as he continued to poke around on the laptop.

Sarah sighed, but decided to change the subject back to Curtis. She needed to distract herself from the guilty feeling over the whole mess that was quickly sinking into her gut. "Anyway, if Curtis' security is as good as you say, this may be our best opportunity to get close to him. Only problem is, I'm not exactly an expert on this kinky fetish crap..."

"Don't look at me. At least you've got 5 days to get yourself caught up... Wanna see the rest of this video?"

"After I get my nail polish remover..." Sarah replied, heading back to her bedroom.

Derek smiled to himself again, hoping it would only be a matter of time before they could finally be rid of the troublesome metal bitch.

...

John didn't spot Cameron anywhere nearby as he took a quick look around the block from the end of the driveway. Holding his cell phone to his hear after dialing her number, he hoped she would at least pick up and explain where she was going.

"Hello?" the cyborg answered in her usual flat tone.

"Hey, uh... where are you?" John asked after exchanging security codes.

"I'm going for a walk... to try to clear my head."

"What?! Why?" John asked impatiently, not exactly used to Cameron acting temperamental.

"Your mother... she's being a bitch."

John hesitated for a moment, a bit taken aback by Cameron's remark and tried to decide how to respond. "Well... just... come back and we can talk about it, ok?"

As upset with Sarah as she was, she probably could've kept walking indefinitely, but Cameron knew she still had a mission, and couldn't leave John without protection for too long. "Ok." She simply replied just before hanging up.

John continued to wait outside the front of the house, and after a few minutes he spotted the cyborg coming around a row of houses on the corner. As Cameron approached the house, she stopped at the end of the driveway to stand in front of John for a moment, her expression blank.

"She yelled at you again, but she's done that before, why'd it make you... upset this time?" John asked. "I didn't know you could even get upset."

"I don't know," she replied flatly.

"Well you should probably just let it go, she's been kinda moody lately. It could just be... you know, that time of the month."

"It's not that time of the month," Cameron immediately responded as she resumed walking back to the house.

"How do you know?"

"I know."

John chuckled as he began to follow her. "Do you even know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes. Menstrual cycles."

John flinched as his attempt to inject a little humor into the conversation backfired.

"She does not like me," Cameron continued.

"Well who knows, she could come around eventually. I can think of a few things you two have in common," John said with a little bit of an edge to his voice, his mother and Cameron's feelings on his relationship with Riley coming to mind. "Maybe you two should go see another movie," he suggested with a grin, but Cameron wasn't having any of it.

"No. I've already made my attempts. My efforts have failed. It's something I no longer wish to persue." she replied as she stiffly walked back into the house.

* * *

**A/N: Ok, so... yes, lots of angst this round, but hang in there, it's not over yet, and I assure you, this is still a love story. Just going to take awhile with these two. Until next time...**


	11. Chapter 11

Sarah Connor decided to make a beeline for the bar as soon as she got inside Sabertooth's, the nightclub where the Winter Wonderland Fetish Fest was being held. She knew she was going to need a drink as soon as she laid eyes on the rest of the evening's attendees. They were mostly clad in vinyl and PVC outfits as well as fishnets and latex, the ones who didn't mind leaving a little bit of themselves to the imagination anyway.

Sarah checked her coat with one of the staff near the entrance to reveal her own outfit, a black leather and sheer lace teddy accented with silver nail heads around the cups and silver chains dazzling along the garter snaps. She'd picked out the outfit at a local adult outlet store. It definitely wasn't her style, but she'd hoped it would at least be convincing enough to get Brad Curtis' attention if she was lucky enough to run into him here. If Derek's repeated but unsuccessful attempts to get her to try it on in front of him were any indication, she seemed to be on the right track. She hadn't spotted Curtis right off the bat, and as she took another look around the club, aside from the other half naked men and women, she spotted a few vampires, a nurse, and a medieval knight or two, but no one who resembled the guy she was after.

On her way to the bar, Sarah walked past a man, at least she assumed it was a man, in a full gimp suit being dragged around on a leash by a woman. She sat down on one of the stools, next to another woman who actually turned out to be a transvestite man upon further inspection. She gave him a weak smile before turning to the bartender to order a tequila sunrise. Somehow, getting eaten out by a killer cyborg from the future was starting to seem tame in comparison to what some of these people were into, although the week following her... encounter with Cameron had been surprisingly normal as far as the Connor household went. After John's initial irritation with his mother and uncle, he'd managed to let most of it go in a day or two, accepting along with Cameron the futility of what he'd assumed to be her attempts to befriend his mother. The terminator herself had essentially gone back to being all business, respecting Sarah's wishes to not attempt anymore come ons, and aside from a few jabs at her over this whole ordeal, Derek had been cooperative for the most part. He'd even expressed genuine concern for her being able to pull this off with her injury, but by now the pain in her ankle was mostly gone, and she was able to walk again without limping. Whether the cooperative mood among them had anything to do with the Christmas decor or not, it obviously hadn't hurt.

Although this mission wasn't supposed to pose any serious danger to Sarah, Derek nonetheless offered to drive her out to the club and provide backup if need be. Sarah agreed, and although Derek obviously wasn't getting inside dressed the way he was, she still didn't mind having the company for the long drive, and having him in the neighborhood on the off-chance anything should happen to go wrong probably wasn't a bad idea either.

"I think I'm gonna go find somewhere to hang out and maybe have a few. Not here obviously," Derek had said after pulling up to the club to drop Sarah off.

She glared back at him, but silently wondered how he'd even managed to go this long without booze.

"Hey, you only said no alcohol in the house!" He protested.

"Fine. I'll call you in about an hour or so with an update," Sarah conceded. "Try not to get too wasted," she said as she shut the passenger door of the SUV and let the man go on his way, probably to the topless bar a block or two down the street that they'd passed on the way here.

As she sipped her tequila, Sarah continued to scan the club for any sign of Brad but didn't spot him near the bar, the dancefloor, or among the people who were being flogged while tied up against odd looking equipment. After about half an hour, as she sat with an empty glass and only a slight buzz, she began to wonder if tonight might turn out to be just an awkward waste of time. It was only a minute or two later however, that the person in the gimp suit, who had apparently been let off of their leash, came to sit down next to her. As the person removed their latex mask which only had a tiny slit near the mouth, in order to communicate with the bartender, Sarah insantly recognized them as none other than Brad Curtis himself. It would seem that fate, as irrelevant as it may be to her, was not without a sense of humor.

She kept her eyes on the man as he ordered up a gin and tonic.

"Any trouble breathing?" She asked, raising her voice over the club's sound system, which was currently pumping out some heavy industrial rock track.

"I'm sorry?" he asked, turning his attention on her.

"Your suit... looks pretty tight."

"Oh yes, but my mistress wanted me to wear it tonight. I don't mind as long as it pleases her."

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Sarah asked, cracking a smile. "You look familiar."

"I'm not sure. Maybe," Curtis answered, but turned away from Sarah, as if he was quickly losing interest in their small talk.

"Have I trained you before?" Sarah questioned, this time in an attempt to appeal to his masochistic tendencies. She could only hope she'd studyed up enough to sound like she knew what she was talking about.

"I don't think so. I usually never forget a face, especially of my goddesses," Curtis replied as the bartender handed him his drink.

"Hmm, you're probably right," Sarah responded. "I must be thinking of someone else. I'm actually from L.A. Just in town for the weekend."

"Oh, that must've been some drive," the middle-aged man remarked just before his mistress re-emerged from behind him and Sarah.

"Hey! Did I give you permission to talk to anyone?" she growled. "I said you could have a drink, that's it. Now shut up and finish it before I get impatient."

"I'm sorry, Mistress," Curtis apologized as he turned back toward the bar to take a sip of his gin as Sarah turned to lay eyes on the woman. She was probably mid-to-late 30's, with wavy blonde hair extending just past her perky breasts, which were clad along with the rest of her petite frame in a skintight vinyl catsuit, supported by stiletto heeled boots.

"Sorry about that," she apologized to Sarah. "Sometimes I just turn my head and my slaves start doing things without my permission."

"That's alright," Sarah replied, chuckling. "Are you two a couple?"

"Ha! Please. Like I'd date such a pathetic excuse for a man. He's just my toy for the night."

"I could take him off your hands for a little while if you want."

"Sorry, Hon. I'm not quite done with him yet," Brad's Mistress declared as she pinched his cheek and pulled his leash back out to re-hook onto the collar around his neck.

"Mistress, _I_ would consider it a great honor to serve you." A voice announced from behind Sarah. She quickly turned around to discover that the transvestite had gotten up and in his place stood a young man wearing nothing but black spandex briefs and a black-and-white striped necktie. "I'm sorry to eavesdrop, but you sounded like you needed a slave. I've been a bad boy. Please punish me,"

"Here, let's see what you got," Brad's mistress said as she offered Sarah the riding crop she'd been carrying.

Sarah turned back toward her, reluctant at first, but quickly realizing this was something she wasn't getting out of easily.

"Please, Goddess, I'm ready," the young man pleaded.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah took hold of the crop, stood up, and smacked the young man's bare back several times until it turned red.

"Thank you Mistress, you've done me a great honor," he declared.

"Of course I have," Sarah replied. "Now run along, there's more important people here I'd like to associate myself with."

The young man then gave Sarah a quick bow before turning to leave.

"Not bad!" Brad's mistress congratulated Sarah as she handed back the crop. "Here, on second thought, why don't you take him off my hands for a little while?" she offered as she held out the end of Brad's leash for Sarah to take.

"By the way, I'm Goddess Alexandra. I haven't seen you around before. You new in town?"

"I'm just here visiting for the weekend. I'm... Goddess Sarah," she replied, trying to hide her embarrassment as she took hold of the leash's handle. For a second she almost wished she had gone with Derek's advice to send Tin Miss in to take care of this.

"Nice to meet you, Goddess Sarah. I love your outfit by the way, looks great on you. Why don't you give me a call sometime? I'd love to get to know you a little better," Goddess Alexandra said with a wink as she handed Sarah a card with her number on it.

"Wow, I think Goddess Alexandra may have a crush on you," Brad remarked after she'd walked away.

"Lucky me. So what's your name, Mr. Slave?"

"Name's Brad. It's nice to meet you, Goddess Sarah."

"You can just call me Sarah. To be honest, I don't normally go out like this. I'm a little shy. I prefer to do most of my sessions in private."

"Really? You seemed pretty confident just a minute ago."

"Thanks, I guess. Maybe I'd do even better somewhere less public. You live around here?"

"Yeah, my apartment's just a few blocks away."

"You wanna get out of here?"

"Uh... well, it's up to you, if you're serious," Brad replied, nodding towards Sarah's right hand which was holding the handle to his leash.

"Dead serious," Sarah answered with a smirk. "It's been a couple months since I had a new toy to play with."

"Can I at least finish my drink?"

"I'll give you five minutes. I need to use the restroom anyway. Don't you move," Sarah warned as she handed Brad the handle to his own leash and got up to make her way to the ladies' room. When she'd made it there however, she checked to make sure she was outside Brad's field of vision and quickly dialed Derek's number.

At the strip club down the street, Derek Reese sat with a smile plastered on his face as the stripper began making her way over to him. His eyes were focused on the tassels swinging back and forth that covered her nipples as she approached when suddenly he felt a vibration from inside his jeans pocket.

He muttered a curse under his breath as he held up his index finger at the stripper, who immediately bypassed him for another man at a nearby table.

"Yeah?" he grumbled after security codes were exchanged.

"I found Curtis. I'm heading out with him to his apartment in five minutes."

"Damn, you work fast. So, you about to go smack him around a bit?" he asked, chuckling.

"I'm going to do what I have to to find out what the hell he's working on!" Sarah growled.

"Right. Well, just call me when you're ready for me to come get you, alright?"

"Will do."

"Alright. Bye." Derek hung up and turned his head to find the man at the other getting a lapdance from his stripper. He sat with a scowl as he sipped his beer and impatiently waited for his turn.

"I hope you're ready to go, because I am," Sarah announced sternly at she returned to the bar where Brad was still sitting. The man proceeded to down the rest of his drink and gave the leash handle back to Sarah. The pair reacquired their coats on the way out and hailed a cab back to Curtis' apartment. Sarah was happy the cold December weather gave them an excuse to have most of their outfits concealed for the short ride, although the cabbie probably found the leash a bit curious.

The concierge casually greeted the two of them as they entered the lobby of the swanky downtown apartment complex. Assuming he was probably accustomed to Brad's kinks, Sarah gave the man a quick fake smile as she and Curtis walked to the elevator.

"Nice place you got here," Sarah remarked as they entered 406, Brad's unit. "Let me guess, doctor?"

"No," Brad simply replied as they removed their coats and hung them on the rack near the door.

"Lawyer?"

"Guess again."

"CEO?"

"Bingo."

"Mmm, Some of my favorite slaves have always been the corporate types," Sarah said, trying to sound as sensually in-character as possible to cover up the fact that she found the freshly revealed sight of Brad in the gimp suit a bit nauseating. "What kind of business you in?"

"I run a local high tech firm. Some pretty advanced computer stuff."

Sarah smiled. "My son loves computers. Me on the other hand, I barely know how to do a Google search."

"So, are you ready to give me a command?" Brad asked, seemingly eager to get back to the business at hand.

"You can start by pouring me something to drink."

"Yes, Goddess. Do you have a preference on the beverage?"

"Ice water will do just fine," Sarah declared as she unhooked Brad's leash to allow him to walk over to the kitchen. Once he was out of sight, she wandered over to the den, where she noticed an illuminated computer monitor that sat atop Brad's desk was displaying many lines of code, although it was more or less gobbledygook to her.

"What's all this stuff?" Sarah asked as she heard Curtis reapproach her from behind. "Looks pretty intense."

"Oh, did you already discover my collection?" Brad asked, chuckling as he made the assumption Sarah had discovered a certain nearby closet full of accessories for BDSM play. He was surprised to see her instead glaring at the LCD screen on his desktop.

"Oh, that... That's part of the research my company is doing," he replied, handing her the glass of water she'd asked for.

"On what?"

Brad gave her an odd look. "Who are you? You didn't really come over here to train me did you?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I did, now get on your knees. I'm going to use your head as a coaster. And you'd better not spill any of it," Sarah snapped.

"You just seemed... well nevermind," Brad said as he descended to his knees, getting back out his latex mask and pulling it back on over his head. "So what happens if I do spill it? Will you make me lick it up? Or perhaps a spanking?" Brad asked, his voice now coming through the mask a bit muffled.

"Uh... yes," Sarah hesitantly responded as she placed the glass of water on top of Brad's head and carefully reattached the leash to his collar. She then took a step back and stood over him awkwardly for a moment, a little unsure of what she was supposed to do next.

"You know, you haven't seemed all that into this since we left the club... I thought you said you did better in private? Has it been that long?" Brad asked.

"No, I'm just a little displeased. I was curious about what your company does, and you didn't explain," Sarah answered, shrugging off her discomfort. "Now how 'bout you give me a quick rundown or you can lick the soles of my boots."

Sarah could see Brad's eyes widen through the slits in the mask as the glass tilted too far off of his head and fell to the floor, spilling the water all over the carpet. "Oh my God..." the man exclaimed, "You're with them aren't you?"

"With who?"

"The Kaliba Group."

* * *

**A/N: So how bout that? Do you miss Cameron? Me too, but she will be returning shortly. I hope this chapter was still entertaining even without her. Stay tuned for more soon.**


	12. Chapter 12

"I'm sorry," Brad apologized as he removed his mask and stood to his feet. "You're going to have to leave. I can't risk you learning anything about my company's research if you're working for them."

"Hold on," Sarah interjected, raising a hand at the man. "What's the hell's going on? I'm not with anybody. I don't even understand what you're talking about. Who is the Kaliba Group?"

Brad looked sternly into Sarah's eyes. His submissive demeanor fading further with each passing second.

"Why are you here from L.A.?" he asked. "You didn't come all the way up here just for the fetish fest. You're after something... S-Something to do with my company..."

Sarah gave the apparently paranoid Curtis an odd look. "Why would you think that? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Brad looked away for a moment and took a deep breath as he began to consider coming clean with the woman standing in front of him. After all, what harm would it do? If she really was working for _them_, she would already be privy to their schemes anyway. If she wasn't, hopefully she would understand his rationale for being overly cautious.

"I'll explain. Just let me get a towel real quick to wipe up this water."

Brad elaborated after returning, "Four months ago," he began as he pressed the towel into the carpet to soak up the spilled liquid, "my team and I were beginning to make breakthroughs in computational neuroscience. In essence, we wanted to create a human brain inside a computer."

"Go on."

"But we needed more money to complete the project. That's when representatives from another tech company I'd never heard of offered to fund us. Eden Technologies. I was naive. I accepted their offer, but of course there was a catch. The FBI showed up at my office and started asking questions. It turns out the money they gave us might have been laundered. Eden Technologies has been under investigation for a long time for involvement in illegal activity... Then I did some research on their parent company, The Kaliba Group. Guess what I found out about them?"

"What?"

"Not much, they cover their tracks pretty well."

Brad stood to his feet and walked back to the kitchen to toss the now wet towel into the sink. He then turned back to Sarah and continued, "That is, until I got a call from someone who claimed to be a former employee. Said he'd been involved in all kinds of shit, assassinations, blackmail, extortion, you name it. He said he was on the run from them after he'd quit their organization. He also told me if I didn't stop asking questions, I might be next on their hit list. So I stopped, but the research continued, and once it began showing reasonable progress, I got another call from someon at Eden. They wanted to buy out my company. When I refused, I started getting anonymous threats. I can't prove it's them of course, but I'm also not an idiot. They even stole a laptop out of my car last week."

"The Kaliba Group?" Sarah asked, knowing full well it was actually Derek who'd stolen the laptop, but she'd leave that part out for now. Looking at Curtis, she could tell this conversation was beginning to agitate him. Large beads of sweat were beginning to form on his forehead and his right arm seemed to be twitching.

"I'm sorry Sarah, but you need to go." Brad declared as he made his way over to the front door and placed his hand on the knob. "I can't be sure you're not with them. If this research gets into the wrong hands..."

"Listen to me, Curtis," Sarah interrupted as she grabbed the man's hand and prevented him from opening the door. "You're right about one thing. It's not a coincidence that we met tonight," Brad's eyes widened as he gazed into Sarah's cold stare. "I don't know who Kaliba is," Sarah continued, "but the stakes here are a lot higher than you think. There's a storm on the horizon, and you're about to get caught in the middle of it."

"W-Who are you?" Brad asked, trembling.

"Im one of the good guys. I'm going on faith that you are too. Now tell me how I can find some of these people who work for Kaliba."

"I-I don't know. The only people I know of are the ones over at Eden Technologies. They supposedly specialize in..."

"Artificially intelligent security systems," Sarah continued for him, already in the know thanks to the info John had already uncovered.

"How did you know that?"

"I've done my homework. That's how I found you."

"And where do _you_ fit into all of this? Are you like a private investigator or something? Who are you working for?"

"You don't want to know, but thanks for the info. I guess I'll have to be paying Eden a visit soon," Sarah said as she grabbed her coat, opened the front door, and stepped back into the hallway. She then gave Brad's leash that was still hanging from his collar a quick tug. "Behave yourself," she warned. "I'll be in touch soon. Cross me and I'll make your worst nightmare look like a trip to Disneyland."

Brad watched, perplexed as Sarah put her coat back on and made her way back to the elevator.

As soon as she'd returned to the lobby, Sarah pulled out her cell to call Derek, who had to take his eyes off of one of table dancers to check his phone. Seeing Sarah's name on the caller ID, he stepped away to answser.

"Yeah?" he asked after exchanging security codes.

"I'm finished here, come get me," Sarah replied.

"Already? So, how hard did you have to hit him before he talked?" he asked back, grinning.

"Not as hard as I'm gonna hit you if you spent all your money on the strip club," Sarah warned, having noticed Derek give the club more than a cursory glance as they'd passed while en route to Sabertooth's.

"How did you know I was..."

"We need to talk."

"Just tell me where you are!"

Sarah politely asked the concierge for the building's address.

...

"So did you get your fill of tits and tassles?" Sarah asked as she climbed into the SUV.

"I might've if someone hadn't kept calling me every 5 minutes," Derek grumbled as he pulled away from Curtis' apartment complex.

"We're on a mission!" Sarah snapped back.

"I'm aware of that. So what'd you find out from this guy? Did you leave him in one piece?"

"Yeah. Find us a hotel," Sarah instructed as she shook her head. "I'm gonna need a shower after tonight, and I gotta get out of this damn outfit, then we can go over everything."

Derek pulled into the first hotel he'd seen and he and Sarah made their way to the front desk.

"And how are we this evening?" The clerk greeted them.

"Fine thanks," Sarah answered. "Can we get two rooms, please? Preferably adjacent."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid a lot of our rooms are undergoing renovation at this time. We only have one left."

"Perfect," Sarah muttered.

"You wanna try somewhere else?" Derek asked.

"No, we'll make due, as long as there are two beds."

"You're in luck, the clerk confirmed. Room 502 contains 2 queen-sized beds."

"We'll take it."

Once the pair entered the room, Sarah sat her suitcase on her bed and retrieved a fresh set of clothes. She also grabbed the research papers she'd brought that contained the intel they'd gathered on Eden Technologies and Brad's company, Kary Corp.

"Here, brush up while I take a quick shower," she said, handing the papers to Derek. "I'll explain more after I get out."

A little while later, Derek heard the bathroom door open and Sarah re-emerged, hair wet and dressed in a fresh tank top and sweatpants. He'd been sitting on his bed, skimming over the paperwork while some old black and white movie played on the TV atop the dresser.

"Alright turn that down," Sarah demanded. Derek complied and reached for the remote to mute the volume.

Satisfied she wouldn't have to talk over the movie, Sarah took a seat on her bed and went on to explain everything Brad had told her about his research and the anonymous threats he'd been getting that he'd assumed were coming from Eden and their shady parent company, The Kaliba Group.

"What if his research is going to become Skynet? There's obviously a reason Eden wants to get their hands on it," Sarah mused.

"We don't even know if he was telling you the truth."

"He seemed genuinely spooked to me. Whatever he's working on it can't be good. It needs to be destroyed."

"So we go in, destroy his research, then what? We go after Eden or Kaliba or whoever?"

Sarah bit her bottom lip as she turned to glance at the clock. It was nearly 3AM. "I'm not sure yet. We still have a lot of ground to cover with investigating all the names on our wall. Maybe some of the others are people that can help us, people that might know something."

Derek snorted. "Yeah but it doesn't seem like it's your style to ask too many questions before you go in guns blazin'."

Sarah's eyes narrowed.

"I know you're concerned about protecting the innocent," he continued, "but we're talking about the fate of the entire human race. Andy Goode may not have understood what he was building but..."

"I get it!" Sarah growled.

"I'm sorry," Derek responded sincerely, wanting to get point across but without angering the woman.

Sarah shook her head. "No, you're right, but... I don't know, I just need to sleep on it, we should go over it all tomorrow when we get back home."

Deciding they'd call it a day at that, Sarah and Derek took turns brushing their teeth, Sarah having made sure he'd packed his own toothbrush. The two then settled in and shut off the light, Derek silently cursing the room for having separate beds.

...

After having returned home the next evening, Sarah and Derek decided to go over everything once again and make a final decision on their next course of action.

John politely requested that his mother spare him the details of her kinky escapades of the previous evening, but preferred to be kept in the loop as far as the rest of the mission went. The three of them took seats at the dining table to discuss their plans.

"So what are you gonna do about Curtis?" John asked.

Sarah cast a stern glance over at her son that all but spoke the fact that Brad's life expectancy may be growing shorter by the minute.

"Come on, Mom!" the boy protested. "We don't even know if he's good or bad. The names on the wall don't tell us anything. What if we're supposed to be protecting this guy?"

"And I don't see how creating a human brain with a computer or whatever he's trying to do could benefit the resistance," Derek interjected. "It's gotta be something Skynet's going to use against us, probably to create better infiltration models."

"Speak of the devil," he added with an scowl at Cameron, who happened to be passing through the room mid-patrol.

"Do you know anything about this research Curtis is doing?" Sarah asked the cyborg.

"No," was Cameron's only response.

"Figures," Sarah scoffed. "Well, I'm with Derek. One way or another we have to stop his research from continuing."

"We should be investigating Eden Technologies first," John suggested. "Last night I tried to hack into their network, but their firewall isn't like anything I've ever seen before. Somehow they've managed to plug all their holes, but if someone could get inside the server room in their building, I could program a virus to give me remote access. It would just have to be uploaded there first."

Sarah took a breath and pondered her son's idea for a moment. "John, Eden Technologies isn't even anywhere on the wall," she countered.

"Mom, there has to be a reason they want Brad's research this bad. We need to know why first before you just take the guy out."

"Maybe you're right, but are you sure this virus of yours will work if I can get inside their office?"

"If you can upload it into their servers, there's a 99.9% chance I'll be able to get access. I can even program it to auto-install, so all you'd need to do is find a port to plug my flash drive into, I can walk you through it."

Sarah glanced over at Derek. "We _could_ use the intel."

"Where did you say their office is located?" she asked, turning back to John.

John pulled up the address on his laptop. "Well, it's kinda in the middle of nowhere. About 140 miles from here, then down another 5 miles of dirt road, it looks like some kind of bunker from the satellite view. Weird place for a supposed tech business. They've gotta be up to something."

"I'll do some recon on it tomorrow," Sarah declared. "If it looks like getting in won't be too much of a problem I'll plant the virus. Hopefully we can find out something useful about who these people are, what they're working on, and for who..."

"We're still going to have to deal with Curtis eventually," Derek cut in.

"I'm aware of that," Sarah replied sternly.

"Well if you're heading out to Eden, I don't mind tagging along, if you want the backup," Derek offered.

"Fine," Sarah agreed. "We'll head out first thing tomorrow morning."

But unbeknownst to any of them, John's attempts to hack into Eden's servers had caught the attention of something that may prove to be the greatest threat they've had yet to face...

**Ok, I know. Apologies to Cameron fans for another chapter where she's barely mentioned, but I hope the plot that's beginning to unfold is interesting enough to make up for it for now. Stay tuned, as Sarah said, there's a storm on the horizon...**


	13. Chapter 13

Sarah Connor couldn't help but feel a certain sense of deja vu as she looked through her binoculars and focused in on the single nightwatchman inside the guardhouse. Less than 24 hours ago, she and Derek Reese stood in roughly the same location, shielded from view by the surrounding wilderness. If the pattern they'd observed the following night was to continue, only this one guard would remain on the property until the morning hours, when the rest of the facility's employees would arrive via a large windowless black van to work a standard eight hour day.

The concrete building itself that stood in the small clearing at the end of the dirt road wasn't exceptionally large, about the size of a small warehouse, but also contained no windows and appeared to only be a single story. Several hundred feet in front of the building, the guardhouse stood adjacent to the gate that controlled access for vehicles.

As they approached the chain link barbed-wire fence that surrounded the rest of the building, Sarah swapped her binoculars for a pair of bolt-cutters from her backpack before turning to Derek, who was standing a few feet behind her.

"You ready to get this over with?"

"Waiting on you," The man replied.

After their recon mission, it made logical sense for Derek to continue to provide backup for the actual break-in. Cameron had tried unsuccessfully to convince Sarah to let her perform the mission herself, but as before, Sarah refused. Derek backed up her insistence that if any companies potentially building Skynet were able to get their hands on the cyborg, they could certainly have a field day reverse-engineering her, giving their enemies an advantage. The terminator still offered to tag along for additional backup, but what she'd perceived as Derek's influence over Sarah was apparently too strong.

It was a convenient enough excuse for Sarah, but Cameron was quick to call her on another, perhaps stronger motive for keeping the distance.

Even now, as much as she tried to suppress it, she could still hear Tin Miss' voice in her head. "You are still uncomfortable working with me because of what happened," Cameron had said last night when she'd managed to catch Sarah alone in the kitchen tidying up after dinner. "You should not be letting your personal feelings hinder me from contributing to the mission."

"Don't flatter yourself, Girlie," Sarah snapped back. "What _you _did to me's got nothing to do with it," she added, knowing deep down it wasn't really the truth. "This place isn't heavily guarded, it's nothing we need to waste your precious talents on. You can make yourself useful here, keeping John safe and out of trouble. I assume you haven't forgotten our recent close call with Cromartie."

Cameron gave Sarah her trademark pouty expression, but realistically she knew the enemy terminator still being at large could pose a danger to John at any given time.

"And make sure John doesn't bring that little blonde skank over here anymore," Sarah continued. "There's also a load of towels in the dryer, they need to be folded and put away."

As Cameron turned to leave the room, Sarah had thought she'd seen the cyborg roll her eyes, but before Cameron was out of sight she turned back to Sarah. "Speaking of the skank, she was here last night while you and Derek were out doing recon. I was outside patrolling the perimeter, and when I came back in, she was on the couch with John and his fly was open again," the terminator finished before walking out.

Sarah let out a groan, making a mental note to sit John down and give him a good talking to about this later.

Now, as she cut through the fence and prepared to take down the security guard, Sarah couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding. If this facility was anything important, why would it be so lightly guarded? But John had insisted he'd scoured the web and this was the only registered location for Eden Technologies.

Shrugging it off, she positioned herself on the ground, retrieved her 9mm pistol from its holster and slowly crept on all fours toward the small guardhouse, not that the nightwatchman would've had much of a chance to spot her with his nose buried in a comic book anyway. When she'd reached it, she quickly sprang up and pointed her gun at the man inside. "Hands up!" She shouted through the glass. Highly startled, the man complied as Derek quickly emerged and ran out from the cover to take Sarah's side. He retrieved the rope from his backpack they'd brought to tie the man up with and approached the door to the guardhouse. Sarah kept the gun trained on the guard for the couple of seconds it took Derek to pick the lock.

"We're not gonna hurt you. Just need to make sure you won't be calling for help from anyone." Derek announced as he confiscated the guard's handgun from the holster around his waist and tied him to his chair.

"Who the hell are you people?" the young man, probably in his late-20s asked nervously.

"It'd be best for you to not ask questions," Derek coldly replied.

"You're making a mistake," the young man cautioned, shaking his head. "It sees everything."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked.

"I've already said too much..." he said, looking down as if he would continue to be defiantly silent if they attempted to press him for more information.

"How do we get to the computer servers? Are they inside the building?" Sarah demanded but the young man refused to respond and continued staring at the floor.

"We're going to have to interrogate him," she declared turning to Derek.

"Are you going to tell us anything or not?" Derek asked.

"No," the man mumbled under his breath.

Derek angrily whipped out his pistol and smacked the guard in the back of the head with the butt of the gun, causing his body to go limp.

"I could've got him to talk!" Sarah protested.

"Let's just get this done. Forget about him," Derek growled.

"We'll probably need this," Sarah said as she snatched the guard's keycard from off of his desk. She and Derek then proceeded to the main building. Swiping the keycard, the two were granted access, and Sarah crept forward into the dimly lit front office, pistol raised in one hand, her small flashlight in the other. It was a relatively small setup, about a dozen cubicles sat behind the front desk, a restroom to the right near the entrance and what appeared to be a breakroom further down the hall.

"Can we upload John's virus to one of these computers?" Derek asked, motioning to a PC in one of the cubicles as he and Sarah carefully swept the room. The computer was still on, and the monitor displayed Eden logos flying across the screen as part of the screensaver. Derek moved the mouse to deactivate the screensaver, but a password prompt appeared in its place.

"No it won't work," Sarah answered. "He said it has to be done at one of the servers because of a network firewall or something. We need to find them."

Making their way to the back of the room, Derek moved the light from his flashlight over the wall to discover a large steel door.

"Sarah, take a look at this."

Sarah inspected the door, and confirmed her initial suspicions that it was in fact an elevator when she discovered the button next to it was labeled with a down arrow.

"Son of a bitch!" She hissed. "This place goes subterranean. The servers must be down below."

Sarah attempted to swipe the keycard through the reader adjacent to the elevator's call button, but the light on it only flashed red as it remained inactive. Pushing the button itself did nothing.

"It's not working?" Derek asked.

"His access level must not be high enough. Get the C-4. We're going to have to do this the hard way," Sarah instructed, now almost wishing she had let Tin Miss come along, her superhuman strength could probably pry open the door in mere seconds.

Derek unloaded the C-4 from his backpack.

"Here, I'll set it. Keep a lookout near the entrance just in case," Sarah continued.

Derek complied, returning to the front of the building, but before Sarah had finished molding the C-4 into place, she heard the man exclaim, "Shit! Sarah, we've got company!"

Through the propped open double doors, he'd seen the three black SUVs making their way towards them from down the dirt road. Men dressed in black helmets and body armor emerged from them carrying assault rifles as the vehicles stopped behind the gate.

Sarah cursed as she ran back to the front of the building, the large metal doors at the entrance the only way in or out as far as she or Derek knew.

No calls for surrender were announced over a megaphone. In fact, none of the men even made any attempt to communicate with them, but as Derek scrambled to get the doors closed, one of them fired off several shots from inbetween the steel bars of the front gate, one striking the resistance fighter in the shoulder. Derek grunted as he stumbled backward and landed on his ass. Sarah made it just in time to see Derek take the hit, and quickly knelt down to check on him after she'd finished slamming the doors the rest of the way shut.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I've had worse..." Derek answered as Sarah inspected the wound.

"It doesn't look too bad, looks like the bullet went right through, but you're still injured. Who are they? Is it the cops?"

"No, I saw the Eden logo on the side of their vehicles."

"God dammit, they must have sent a security detail. How the hell did they get here so fast?"

"They knew we were coming somehow..."

"How could they have? Even if they..." Sarah cut herself off as she took another look at Derek's bleeding shoulder. "You need to get the hell out of here!"

"How am I supposed to do that?!"

"Do you think you can run?"

Derek gave Sarah an odd look as she moved back to the front doors, cracking them open and peering through with her binoculars to discover the security team had cut their own hole in the fence, apparently not having noticed theirs, and managed to untie the nightwatchman and bring him back to consciousness. The front gate was also beginning to open.

"I'll lay down some cover fire for you, then I'll get the virus uploaded," she declared.

"Sarah, I can't just leave you, there won't be any way out..." Derek protested as he stood to his feet.

Sarah shook her head. "I should've known it wouldn't be this easy, but this proves whatever these guys are doing, they _really_ must not want anyone to know about it. I've got to get John that data."

Derek's eyes widened as his stomach turned, fearing this could be the end for Sarah. "I don't want to lose you, I can't..."

"I'll be fine, Reese. Now get your ass out of here and get that wound patched up," Sarah commanded as she kicked open one of the doors, using the other for cover as she fired off shots as quickly as possible. Derek made a run for it, using his good arm to fire his Glock at the men as well. The security team scrambled for cover in their seemingly bulletproof vehicles, and now that the gate was fully open they began driving forward, firing at both Sarah and Derek with their automatic weapons from the windows and sunroofs. Still being a considerable distance away from each other however, neither side managed to land any hits, and Derek successfully escaped through the hole Sarah cut in the fence, returning back to the cover of the surrounding wilderness.

With the black SUV's nearing the building and Sarah running low on ammo, she slammed the other door shut again and quickly scrambled back to the elevator to prepare to detonate the C-4. She'd almost made it when she suddenly heard the front doors reopen and two large objects crash onto the floor several feet away from her. She turned her head and aimed her flashlight on one of them to quickly discover a gas cannister spewing its contents into the room. She attempted to fumble for the detonator as she covered her mouth with her sleeve, but the gas was spreading throughout the small room too fast.

Derek could only look on from his secluded vantage point as three of the men now wearing gas masks forcefully pulled a hacking and coughing Sarah from the building. They bound her arms and legs and tossed her in the back of one of the SUV's before climbing in and taking off. The tires kicked up a large amount of dust and dirt as they quickly pulled out of the facility and disappeared down the stretch of road. Six or so of the rest of the team stood guard and remained behind to secure the building.

Derek assumed it couldn't have been possible to upload the virus in the short amount of time before Sarah had been incapacitated by the tear gas. Knowing there was next to nothing he could do to help her now, he cursed as he made a run back to their vehicle, parked just off the road in a concealed area about half a mile from his current location.

...

"Yeah my mom and my uncle are out again tonight," John informed Riley over the phone as he sat on the sofa watching TV as he chatted. "I'd let you come over but my sister's here and she's acting weird again," he continued as Cameron stood a few feet away giving him dirty looks.

"Well why don't you come over here?" Riley offered.

"I'm not supposed to leave the house tonight."

"Seriously? What are you 12?!"

John's phone beeped to indicate he had another incoming call. He moved the phone away from his ear to check the display. Seeing that it was Derek calling, he apologized to Riley for having to put her on hold before he switched the line over.

"Derek? What's going on, I thought you guys were in the middle of a mission? Did you get the virus uploaded already?"

"The mission was a failure..." Derek said, breathing heavily, "They have your mother, John. I'm sorry."

"What?!" the boy exclaimed, "I thought this was supposed to be a piece of cake?!"

"They sent some kind of security team, like they knew we were coming somehow... I've been shot, it's not that bad, but they took Sarah somewhere... I don't know where..."

"Tell me this isn't happening Derek, they've got Mom?!"

"John... some of the security team is still here, but there's nothing else I can do, I'm way outgunned... I don't know, send the metal, maybe she can leave one of them alive and interrogate him to find out what they did with Sarah."

Hearing the news with her oversensitive ears, Cameron let out what sounded like an angry sigh, grabbed the keys off the counter then immediately marched out the front door, slamming it behind her. John followed, phone still to his ear as he reopened the door and called out to her.

"Where are you going?!"

"To get Sarah back," she shouted without turning around as she kept walking towards their other SUV parked in the driveway.


	14. Chapter 14

**Caution: Fasten your seatbelts, the story's about to get a little dark for the time being. If you're offended by depictions of sexual assault then this chapter may not be for you. You've been warned, so no complaining if you choose to read anyway. Aside from that, as always, reviews are welcome and much appreciated. Thanks for reading.**

"What are we doing with this bitch?" one of the Eden security officers asked from the backseat of the SUV, as he and his counterpart in the seat next to him removed their gas masks.

"We have our orders. We're bringing her in for questioning," the other man replied, both of them referring to the prisoner tied up in the cargo space directly behind them.

Sarah laid bound and gagged, still reeling from the tear gas.

"And what if she doesn't wanna talk?"

"Remember that new shit they told us about that's supposed to scare the piss out of somebody?"

"The drug chems division's been working on that brings out all your subconscious fears or whatever?"

The men spoke too low for Sarah to make out much of what they were saying, not that it would've been easy even if they had been shouting as she struggled to regain control of her senses.

"Yeah. We got some waiting back at the warehouse. Technically we're not even supposed to know about it, but when the bosses got word from Issac that we were about to get burglarized I guess they figured it might be a good opportunity to test it out."

"Now I guess it makes sense they wanted us to take one of them alive."

"Yeah, they're probably not gonna be happy the other guy got away, but at least we'll get to watch this one squeal if this stuff really works."

"That should be interesting. Hear that, bitch?" the man asked, speaking loud enough this time for Sarah to hear. "We're gonna have some fun with you."

The driver remained silent, but adjusted his rear view mirror to take a quick look at Sarah as he smiled ominously.

...

It was just after midnight that Derek made it back to his truck that he and Sarah had driven there in. He'd hung up with John after assuring him that he was going to be fine. As for Sarah, as much as he hated to admit it, Derek knew the only real chance they had at getting her back was Cameron. He could only hope the cyborg would reach her in time before they did God knows what with her. Having been informed by John that Cameron had already departed, he dialed her cell number. He held the phone to his ear with his shoulder as it rang while he fumbled for the first aid kit under the driver's seat of the truck.

"Hello?" Cameron answered.

"John said you were on your way."

"_I'm_ on my way to rescue Sarah. Thanks for letting her get kidnapped."

"Right, so you gonna come out here and make one of these guys talk or what?" Derek growled, but doing his best to ignore the jab. He had bigger concerns at the moment.

"No. I'm already tracking Sarah's current location."

"How the hell are you doing that?"

"I planted a beacon in her right shoe last night, you have one in yours too."

"What? Why didn't you tell us you did that?!" Derek asked as he reflexively looked down at his boot.

"I did it in the event of these or similar circumstances. Informing you and Sarah about it wasn't necessary since neither of you are allowing me to adequately participate in the mission," she scolded. "John's orders were to..."

"Alright, alright! Now's not the time for a fucking lecture, just... get Sarah back in one piece, ok?! And call me or John when you do."

"I will. Do you require medical attention?"

"No, I think the bleeding's already stopped, I'll get it cleaned up and have John help me with the stitches when I get back." Derek replied as he popped open the medical kit and reached for the gauze.

"Goodbye," was all Cameron responded with just before she hung up.

...

Sarah, still bound and gagged, squinted under the bright flourescent lights of the small warehouse as the three men forcefully dragged her to a desk chair in the middle of the room. Two of the men held her down as a third tied another rope around her waist to secure her to the chair.

Satisfied she wasn't going anywhere, one of the men knelt down and undid the gag from Sarah's mouth. Her eyes had finally stopped burning from the gas, but she had to blink a few times to clear her vision and let her pupils adjust to the lighting enough to get a good look at the man's face. He appared to be late-40s to early-50s age-wise, and the other two were probably 40 at the oldest.

"Name's Frank. This is Joe and Tom," the man said, introducing the three of them while faking a smile that Sarah easily saw right through. "What's yours?"

"Eat shit," she hissed. Based on their apparent ages and the fact that Frank had been the one to initiate convseration with her, Sarah assumed he was the one in charge here.

Irritated by her response, Frank whipped out his pistol from the holster around his waist and pointed it at Sarah's head.

"Let's try this. If you simply tell us why you decided to break into our facility, and where we can find that friend of yours who got away, I'll spare you the pain and misery of having to... _extract _information from you by force," Frank explained as he grinned sadistically.

"Why? To stop you from blowing up the fucking world," Sarah answered.

Frank couldn't help but laugh. He assumed the woman was either insane or trying to give answers that made no sense. He pointed the gun away from Sarah as he turned to the other two men who began to chuckle as well. "And what makes you think we want to do that?"

Sarah smirked. "Do you even know what your company does or are you just a bunch of meathead thugs? Who the hell's in charge of your organization?"

Angered, Frank backhanded Sarah across the face.

"You're not the one asking questions here!" he shouted as Sarah tensed from the stinging in her cheek.

"Search her," he commanded the other two. They'd already confiscated Sarah's weapons back at the Eden facility, but Frank wanted to be sure they hadn't missed anything else that might give them an idea about the woman's intentions. They searched the pockets of her cargo pants and found her pair of miniature binoculars and the flash drive that contained John's virus.

Tom handed the two items over to Frank, who looked over the flash drive briefly.

"What's on here?" Frank demanded.

"Just a few Red Hot Chili Peppers albums. My friend is a big fan, you know, the one you let escape," Sarah answered defiantly.

Frank's patience was wearing thin. "Enough games. What do you know about Issac?"

Sarah's brow furrowed. She seemed to recall something about an Issac from the documents on Brad Curtis' laptop, but couldn't remember details.

"The bartender from the Love Boat?" she asked, playing dumb.

Frank smirked. "Fine. You think this is a joke? Have it your way. Hang on to these for now," he instructed, handing the drive along with the binoculars off to Joe, "We'll get the drive analyzed later."

Joe stuffed the items into his pockets for the time being.

"Get the drug," Frank then instructed Tom.

"Heh. Sodium Pentothal?" Sarah asked smugly.

"Oh no, this is something much worse," Frank said, his sadistic grin returning. "You sure you don't want to tell us who you are or who you're working with?"

"I've got nothing left to say to you."

Frank turned and shouted to Tom, who'd stepped into an adjacent room, "Get the laptop set up to record. This will technically be the first human trial. They'll want to see this."

Tom reappeared a minute later with a briefcase and a laptop. He set the laptop down on a table a few feet away from Sarah and activated the webcam. He then opened the briefcase to reveal three syringes full of a brownish yellow liquid.

Sarah watched nervously as Frank retrieved one of the syringes, flicked it and pressed down until a few drops of the drug squirted out.

Frank then forcefully grabbed Sarah's arm as she squrimed in the chair and injected the drug.

"Let's see what this stuff really does," Joe said, watching intently for the woman's reaction.

"Now the fun begins," Frank said in a tone that sent a chill down Sarah's spine.

It was only a minute or two later that Sarah suddenly became overcome with feelings of anxiety that rippled through her body in what felt like waves.

"What do you think, boys?" Frank asked the other two men as he noticed the woman beginning to react to the drug. "Wanna have some fun with our new little whore?"

Tom and Joe laughed as Frank stepped in to untie Sarah from the chair. Feeling inexplicably terrified, Sarah attempted to run, but her legs still being bound, only caused herself to collapse to the cement floor.

"Going somewhere?" Joe taunted her.

Sarah writhed on the floor for a moment before she realized the fearful sensations must be the effect of the drug. She closed her eyes tightly shut but it didn't seem to help. Thoughts of nuclear fire, John's death, and cancer echoed in her head like the soundtrack from a bad horror movie was stuck on repeat and someone had cranked the volume up to 11.

"So you ready to talk?" Frank asked before kicking her in the ribs.

Sarah groaned but said nothing.

"Well it doesn't matter now anyway. I'm not interested in hearing from you anymore. I think we'll just entertain ourselves a little before we dispose of you. Make yourselves useful and restrain her." Frank commanded the other two.

The other two men grabbed Sarah's arms and legs and held her to the floor. Sarah began to tremble, the fear from the situation augmented tenfold from the drug.

"Let's see what we're really dealing with here," Frank announced as he positioned himself above Sarah's head, kneeling down and reaching for the edge of her black shirt.

Sarah reflexively headbutted him, causing him to fall backward.

"Augh! You fucking bitch!" Frank shouted, rubbing his throbbing forehead.

He smacked Sarah hard on the cheek again before more forcibly and quickly grabbing her shirt and pulling it up and over her head. The long sleeves got caught on the ropes binding Sarah's arms, preventing it from coming all the way off, but still leaving her torso exposed.

"Well I can't say that's the most impressive rack I've ever seen," Joe remarked as he continued to hold Sarah's legs down against the floor.

"Don't mind if I do then," Frank announced, pulling out a knife from a holster around his waist and cutting Sarah's bra straps.

"You motherfuckers!" Sarah hissed as she squirmed in vain, still extra terrified from the drug, as if the situation wasn't bad enough.

Frank tossed Sarah's torn bra aside and began groping her bare breasts.

"Don't look so disappointed," he said to his cohorts. "You'll both get a turn after I'm finished. Now let's get the rest of her clothes off!"

Joe held Sarah by her ankles while Tom held her arms above her head. Frank then slid down to undo her belt before sliding her pants down to just above the rope binding her legs.

Sarah began to hyperventilate, shivering as the villainous Frank leaned over her, taunting his prey.

"Hey boss," Tom interjected, noticing the large beads of sweat on the woman's forehead, and her face becoming very red in addition to the rest of her body's reactions. "I think she's really starting to freak out from that shit, what if we give her a heart attack or something? I thought we were supposed to be interrogating her?"

"You heard her. She won't talk. Besides, if she still doesn't want to after this I don't think anything will work. They'll just make us kill her anyway. You need to learn how to take advantage of a situation," Frank replied before grabbing Sarah's panties and sliding them down.

"Well at least she shaves," Joe commented with a twisted smile on his face. "You sure you wanna be recording this though?"

"Why not?" Frank replied. "You know the sick bastards we work for. They'll probably get off on this shit. Besides, I think they'll be pleased to know their new concoction seems to work just fine. She looks freaked out enough to me! Although... not the messiest form of torture, but I can fix that."

"Don't, please just don't..." Sarah begged.

"And now gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for!" Frank announced gleefully, ignoring the tortured woman's plea.

Frank smirked again as he began to undo his own belt before a shrill tone begun to emanate from the laptop on the table. The three men turned their heads to notice the words INTRUDER ALERT displayed on the screen in a large font.

"What's going on?" Joe asked.

"Issac's trying to warn us. Go check outside real quick, both of you. I'll keep an eye on her," Frank commanded just before a loud bang suddenly erupted.

The three men turned their heads to notice a fresh dent, facing inward, had appeared in the side door of the warehouse. Two more bangs echoed before the door suddenly burst off the hinges and what looked to be a petite teenage girl with long brown hair stood in its place only a few feet from the rest of them.

"Hey baby, you come to join the party?" Frank asked the newcomer.

"Bring her over here!" he shouted to Joe and Tom. They released Sarah and had begun moving in to subdue Cameron, but before they'd even gotten their weapons out of their holsters, Cameron, having seen Sarah and the condition she was in, drew her own pistol so blindingly fast, neither of them probably even saw the shots coming. Cameron's targeting system, aiming for maximum lethality, pulled off the two headshots in just 0.4 seconds.

"Shit!" Frank exclaimed as his two counterparts' limp bodies collapsed to the ground. Being too close to Sarah for Cameron to safely take him out, he quickly grabbed the woman, pulling her to her feet and making sure he'd continue to have this advantage. Holding Sarah in front of him as a human shield, he aimed his gun at Cameron and warned her, "That's enough! Don't come any closer!"

Ignoring him, Cameron quickly moved forward, taking two shots in the chest, but remaining unfazed.

Even in her desperate state, Sarah's instincts kicked in and, taking advantage of Frank's surprise at Cameron being unharmed by the bullets, bit into his arm, causing him to cry out in pain and release her. Sarah fell back onto the floor, and Cameron immediately shot Frank in the leg. The man stumbled forward, stunned long enough for Cameron to move in and and grab his gun.

Tossing the weapon aside, the terminator grabbed him by the neck, causing him to grasp Cameron's arm as he struggled for air. Cameron looked down at Sarah, most of her body still exposed. Seemingly angry, she'd specifically targeted Frank in a place that wouldn't kill him, at least not immediately, hoping to do that with her bare hands.

"How come I c-couldn't hurt you? Oh God..." he gasped. "The angel of death... What have I done?"

The cyborg squeezed tighter as she turned her gaze back on Frank, crushing his windpipe and eventually snapping his neck before his lifeless body crashed to the floor to join his other two deceased comrades.

"Sarah..." Cameron called out as she immediately knelt down to examine the devastated woman. "Are you ok?"

"Tin Miss..." Sarah whispered, her vision a little blurry from tears but still able to make out the face of the one who'd come to her rescue. Knowing she was much safer now, the drug-amplified terror began to recede somewhat.

"Let's get your clothes back on," Cameron said as she moved in to aid Sarah in doing so.


	15. Chapter 15

"Hold still," Cameron instructed as she pulled out her pocket knife to cut the ropes binding Sarah's arms and legs.

Slicing through them, she then tossed the cut up pieces aside and helped Sarah to her feet. Freed and re-clothed (minus her destroyed bra), Sarah did her best to focus, but was still feeling disoriented and nervous from the drug.

"Do you need help, Sarah?" Cameron asked, noticing Sarah wobble a bit. She kept one arm held out in front of Sarah and the other behind just in case the woman lost her balance.

"I... don't know, they injected me with something," Sarah replied, pointing in the direction of the table where the briefcase sat with the other two syringes still full of the drug.

"Here, sit back down," Cameron said as she pulled the chair back behind Sarah and stepped over to the table.

The woman took her seat as Cameron examined the liquid contained in the syringes.

Meanwhile, Sarah began rubbing her eyes with the index finger and thumb of her right hand as she sat trying to block out the anxiety still plauging her consciousness, but not having much luck.

"I think I know what this is," the cyborg declared.

"You do?" Sarah asked as she stopped rubbing her eyes to focus her gaze back on the terminator.

"Are you feeling extreme sensations of worry, fear, or paranoia right now?" Cameron asked, turning back around to face Sarah.

"Yes... all of the above... How did you..."

"It must be the terror, that's what the resistance called it in the future. Skynet used it on unruly prisoners in its work camps."

"W-What?" Sarah stammered, shaking. "What's something that like doing here in our time?"

"I don't know, and I don't know when the original formula was first synthesized, but it's possible the chemical recipe could have been sent b-" Cameron cut herself off as she began to notice Sarah tremble from the mention of Skynet possibly being involved in tonight's events. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to be having this discussion.

"We should go," she finished instead.

"No," Sarah protested, "Check the laptop, they were... recording..."

Cameron turned back to the table, where the laptop sat next the the briefcase. She examined the screen and found an application running that was indeed recording through the computer's built-in webcam as they spoke. Using the touchpad, Cameron moved the mouse to close out the recording program when the screen suddenly turned black and white text appeared in the center that read "WHO ARE YOU?"

Cameron's eyes widened at the message from an unknown source, but deciding it would have to be dealt with later, she immediately closed the laptop and removed the battery to prevent any applications from continuing to run. She then closed up the briefcase with the remaining syringes of the drug and carried both items under her left arm as she returned to Sarah. "We should analyze this computer later. It may provide us with valuable intel. We should also destroy the other two samples of this drug," she suggested calmly, not wanting to cause Sarah anymore distress.

"Ok," Sarah responded, slowly returning to her feet. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

Sarah grabbed hold of Cameron's shoulder to keep herself steady as they began to walk towards the exit of the warehouse.

"Wait, hold on," Sarah said suddenly as they passed by Tom's corpse.

Cringing but determined, she knelt down and looking away, shuffled through his pocket for a moment before finding the flash drive he'd taken from her.

"John's virus," she stated, before letting Cameron lead her the rest of the way to the exit.

Cameron stopped as she sensed the cold air from outside the ripped open doorway.

"Here, take my jacket," she said as she slid the brown garment off of herself and helped Sarah into it.

"Thanks," Sarah replied as they continued the rest of the way to their vehicle, unknowingly observed by a certain presence monitoring the feed from the warehouse's security cameras.

Cameron got the door for Sarah when they reached their SUV, and for once Sarah didn't protest, even as Cameron gently laid a hand on Sarah's back as she climbed into the passenger's side.

The terminator then closed Sarah's door, tossed the laptop and the briefcase in the backseat and made her way to the driver's door.

"How are you feeling?" Cameron asked, turning her gaze on Sarah as she started the engine.

"Like hell," the woman replied, pressing the fingers of both her hands into her temples. "Do you have any idea how long this shit lasts?"

"From what I've heard, you may experience the effects for up to 12 hours."

"Great... Just get us out of here."

Cameron obeyed, and once they were back on the road, pulled out her cell phone and dialed John's number.

By now it was nearly 3am, Derek had made it home, and John was finished helping him get his shoulder stitched back up. Now the boy and his uncle sat impatiently on the couch in the living room, fighting the temptation to give in to sleep as they waited to hear from either Cameron or Sarah.

"You want me to make some coffee?" John asked.

"Be my guest," Derek replied, "I plan to stay up all night if I have to. Chrome Dome better get your mom back in one piece."

"I'm sure she'll do everything she can," John said as he got up off the couch to began brewing a pot of coffee. He'd just manage to set foot in the kitchen when he suddenly heard his ringtone.

His phone sat next to Derek's on the coffee table, and Derek, being closer, reached for the phone and confirmed it was indeed Cameron's name on the caller ID. John sprinted back to the living room and grabbed the phone out of his uncle's hand.

"Cameron?" he answered.

"John, I have your mother with me now. My rescue attempt was a success."

"What about the guys who took her?"

"They're dead," Cameron responded as she took the onramp for the freeway, accelerating to the appropriate speed.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked suddenly. "Slow down, don't go so fast!"

"Sarah, I'm going the speed limit," Cameron responded.

"No! We're going too fast! You're going to get me killed!"

"What's going on?" John asked, overhearing Sarah's voice. "Is mom ok? What's she yelling about?"

"She's just had a rough night. Are you at home?"

"Yeah, me and Derek are here, we were waiting to hear something. Can I talk to mom?"

"He's not safe..." Sarah mumbled. "He's not safe!" she said again, almost shouting again this time.

Cameron told John to hold on, asking Sarah what was wrong as she covered the phone's mouthpiece with her fingers.

"John's not safe, the machines are out there right now, they're looking for him..."

"John's safe Sarah, he's at home with Derek. It's the drug making you paranoid."

"No one is ever safe!" She yelled. Cameron turned her head to meet eyes with Sarah. She took notice of the beads of sweat reforming on the woman's forehead, dilated pupils, and paler than normal skin.

"They can't see me like this," Sarah continued, realizing she probably was acting irrational but struggling to reign in her emotions. "They'll call for help and they'll take me away... They'll take me away from him again!" she shouted, grabbing Cameron's arm.

"Should I pull over?"

"I don't know..."

"I saw a sign 2 miles back for the Pleasant Dreams Inn. It's 7.2 miles ahead. Do you want to stop there for a while?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not... John can't see me acting like this, he'll start to doubt me..."

Cameron put the phone back up to her mouth.

"John, We're stopping at a motel for the night. Your mother will be fine. I'll call you in the morning."

"But..."

"Goodnight, John," Cameron said just before hanging up and turning her phone off.

"What the hell's going on?" Derek asked.

"They're stopping at a motel. I don't know, Mom seemed upset about something, but Cameron said she was safe."

"But she didn't let you talk to Sarah yourself?"

"No, she just hung up on me."

"What?! You call that bucket of bolts back right now and get some answers!" Derek demanded. "She needs to bring your mom home. Why the hell are they stopping at a motel?"

John attempted to redial but the call went straight to the automated voicemail message. "The person at this number cannot be reached at this time. Please leave a message after the tone."

"Cameron, it's John. Look uh, just have Mom call me or Derek when you get this ok?"

"Fucking metal." Derek grumbled.

...

"I'll check us in," Cameron declared as she shifted the transmission into park, having arrived at the motel. "I'll be right back, ok?"

"Ok, just... hurry up," Sarah mumbled, curling up in her seat and tembling a little as she rested her head against the window.

Cameron retrieved the bag of emergency cash they'd kept under the seat and made her way to the lobby to get herself and Sarah a room for the night.

Sarah was startled a few minutes later when a tapping on the glass of her window signaled the terminator's return.

"Did they give us a room?" she asked, opening her door and slowly reaching for Cameron's shoulder again to steady herself.

"Yes, 109."

Cameron flipped the light switch, illuminating the small room. It wasn't much, but the single king sized bed looked comfortable enough. She led Sarah to it, then kneeled down and slid off the woman's boots after she'd sat down.

Returning to her feet, she met eyes with Sarah, noticing that she still seemed to be highly distressed. Sarah looked away, but said nothing. Cameron assumed she didn't want to seem pitiful, but her reactions to this dangerous drug weren't something she wanted to leave Sarah on her own against.

"You should lie down," the cyborg suggested, wanting to do what she could to help. "I'll get you some water."

Sarah sighed, but slowly found the rest of her body meeting the comforter on the bed as Cameron filled a glass full of water from the sink.

The terminator then returned, setting the glass down on the nightstand before grabbing all of the pillows from the bed and piling them behind Sarah, letting her rest her neck and shoulders upright.

"Your cheek is swollen," Cameron observed, "They hit you didn't they?"

"It's fine..."

"I'll get you some ice, I need to go back to the car to get the first aid kit anyway to patch up these bullet holes," Cameron continued, motioning to her chest. She then grabbed the ice container provided by the motel off the dresser. "I'll be right back," she announced as she headed to the door.

"Ok," Sarah replied as she sipped the water, trying to keep her thoughts off of Judgement Day, losing John, cancer, and other negative past experiences, finding it a bit easier to fight the drug's effects now that she was here in this quiet room with Cameron looking out for her.

A moment later, Cameron returned, having quickly retrieved the ice and the medical kit from the car. Grabbing a washcloth, she wrapped the ice and handed it to Sarah.

"I'll just be a minute," she assured Sarah as she turned and made her way to the bathroom.

Closing the door behind her, she slipped off her shirt and prepared to remove the bullets when she heard Sarah call her name.

"Yes?" she answered, reopening the door and coming back out with just her bra covering her torso.

"Can you... leave the door open?" Sarah asked, not seeming to mind the view. "I just... need to know I'm not alone in here."

"Yes, of course," the terminator replied, disappearing out of sight again but leaving the door open this time. She removed her bra, clearing the way for her pliers to pry out the bullets still lodged in her endoskeleton. She set the bullets down next to the sink and patched up the holes in her chest with two bandages from the kit. Redressing herself, she returned to check on Sarah, who was curled up on the bed, holding her knees to her chest as she lied shaking. The drug's effects had apparently begun to strengthen again. The cyborg didn't have anything else to go do now, and she hoped offering Sarah her company would help reduce some of the anxiety.

"Sarah," Cameron called out to her.

"What is it?" she answered, still looking away as Cameron approached, moving the washcloth that Sarah had discarded out of the way. She then sat down on the bed and laid a hand on the woman's forehead for another analysis.

"You're perspiring again, and your body temperature and pulse are elevated. You need to try to calm your mind."

"Well what the fuck am I supposed to do, Girlie? Picture myself on a beach or some bullshit like that?"

"Yes, try that," the cyborg replied, moving her hand to rest on Sarah's shoulder.

"You've got to be kidding..."

"Maybe this will help," Cameron said as she began to softly sing,

_Off the Florida Keys,_  
_There's a place called Kokomo _  
_That's where you wanna go to get away from it all_

Sarah frowned, expecting anything but the terminator to break out in song.

_Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take you _  
_To Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama _  
_Key Largo, Montego baby why don't we go _

"I didn't know you could sing," Sarah said as she cracked a smile and begun to chuckle soon after.

_Down to Kokomo _  
_We'll get there f-_

"Why'd you stop?" Sarah asked, noticing after a few seconds after the interruption Cameron didn't seem to want to continue.

"You're laughing at me. I must not be a good singer."

"No, you're are. It's just a stupid song. How do you even know it?"

"I heard it on the radio, back in 1999. When you mentioned the beach it reminded me of it."

"Really?" Sarah was amused by terminator's apparent interest in pop music. "What other songs do you know? Got any more filed away on that chip of yours?"

"Why don't you let me tuck you in?" Cameron offered instead of answering. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah."

Sarah stood back up while Cameron pulled down the sheets. She then took off the jacket and let it rest on the chair next to the bed. Cameron waited for Sarah to climb back onto the bed and then pulled the topsheet over her.

Cameron making her chuckle had offered Sarah a brief reprieve, but now she was beginning to feel another wave of anxiety from the drug coming on. She knew instinctively that having someone close to her would bring her a sense of security, and she was going to have to make due with the only other "person" who happened to be around. Taking a deep breath, and hoping she wouldn't hate herself for this later, she scooted over and pulled the sheets up from the edge of the bed.

"Come lay next to me."

Cameron tilted her head at Sarah, not sure if the woman was toying with her or not. Hell of a time to be if she was.

"What are you waiting for?" Sarah asked impatiently.

Deciding she'd play along, Cameron kicked off her boots and joined Sarah in bed. She gave the woman an odd look as Sarah wrapped an arm around her waist.

Sarah snorted. "What? Never cuddled before?"

"No. Does it help you feel safe?"

Sarah nodded.

"Good," Cameron continued as she followed suit and put one of her arm's around Sarah. "I don't think the drug works as well if you feel safe."

Cameron wasn't sure she'd ever have an opportunity like this again, but she was happy to oblige Sarah, even if just this once. Being so close, the woman was putting an incredible amount of trust in her, especially considering the fact that Cameron had hurt her before, the day of the Jeep explosion. Of course, Cameron didn't want to do or say anything to remind Sarah of that right now.

"You have a heart beat?" Sarah asked, feeling a faint thumping from inside the terminator's chest.

"What should pass for one, yes."

Sarah pondered the cyborg next to her. Gentle as she was being right now, Sarah was still mindful of the incredible things Cameron was capable of when she needed to be, like tonight, when she'd taken out the three thugs in a matter of seconds.

Sarah's hands began to wander over the terminator's chest with a fascination for the machine she'd never felt before now. Being together like this with Cameron indeed helped. The security seemed to hamper the effects of the drug, and the slight arousal she felt in addition probably didn't hurt either. It was quite ironic, considering the animosity she normally held against the metal, but it wasn't a machine that had attacked her tonight, it had been flesh and blood human beings. Sarah recalled something Cameron had mentioned recently about being efficient, but not cruel. Maybe Skynet had invented this drug, but leave it to human beings to think to use it in such a devastatingly horrid manner. Fortunately, Cameron had used her abilities to take all of them down before they could carry out their fiendish plan.

"I wish I had your strength," Sarah confessed. "If you hadn't gotten there when you did those men would've raped me... Thank you for getting me out of there... Even if you don't understand."

"You're welcome, Sarah. And yes, I do understand."

"You do?"

"Yes. What they tried to do to you was inexcusable," Cameron said, a hint of anger in her tone.

"They were trying to get me to talk. I didn't tell them anything."

"I knew you wouldn't. You're very brave."

"I don't feel very brave right now. I'm still shaking a little."

"In the future many prisoners cracked under the influence of the terror drug, they begged the machines to kill them or betrayed the resistance and gave up important information. You'd never do that. You're too strong."

"I'm not strong like you."

"You shouldn't compare yourself to me. I'm not human... But I'm glad I was able to stop those men before they could..."

"Wouldn't have been the first time."

Cameron tilted her head again, a bit surprised by Sarah's candor, but had a look of curiosity in her eyes that prompted Sarah to elaborate.

"A few times with the gun runners down south, and at least once in the mental hospital... I was... nevermind," Sarah cut herself off as the drug's effects began to intensify again when her thoughts drifted to less than pleasant memories.

"I'm so sorry, Sarah."

"Forget about it... but how did you know where to find me tonight anyway?"

"Since you and Derek weren't cooperating with me, I put a tracking beacon in one of each of your boots. I did it so I could still have knowledge of your wherabouts in case of a situation like tonight. I knew you probably wouldn't like it, so I didn't say anything, but I hope you can appreciate why now."

"Thanks for looking out for me," Sarah said, smiling as she brushed her fingertips over Cameron's cheek.

"It's part of my mission."

"Just like singing to me?" Sarah asked with a smirk.

"You should get some rest. Goodnight, Sarah," was Cameron's reply as she reached over and flipped the light switch off, plunging the room into darkness.

"Sing me something else."

A few seconds passed with Cameron saying nothing before Sarah playfully gave her a shove. "Come on, I really do like your voice."

A few more seconds passed and Cameron finally gave in.

_Words like violence  
Break the silence  
Come crashing in  
Into my little world  
Painful to me  
Pierce right through me  
Can't you understand  
Oh my little girl_

Sarah didn't laugh this time, and as she lied in the bed snuggled up next to Cameron, she assumed that either this drug must've completely fried her brain, or maybe tonight's events had actually lead her to begin to accept certain feelings she'd been desperate to keep buried. Mentally and physically exhausted, she decided to worry about it later and quickly drifted off to sleep to Cameron's rendition of Depeche Mode's _Enjoy the Silence_.

_All I ever wanted_  
_All I ever needed_  
_Is here in my arms_  
_Words are very unnecessary_  
_They can only do harm_


	16. Chapter 16

"Sarah? Sarah, I want you to listen carefully to me, alright?" Dr. Silberman instructed as he stared at the woman soberly, though she refused to look up at him. She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but Sarah found herself once again locked up in Pescadero Mental Hospital. Most likely the result of her having flubbed another mission and gotten caught again. Now she'd been taken away, stuck in a room and forced to indulge Silberman for another of his usual sessions to attempt to talk some sense into her. At least that's what she'd assumed before he was handed a folder by one of the other staff members and softly spoke again.

"I have some bad news. It's about your son John."

"John?!" Sarah exclaimed, returning eye contact now. "What happened, is he ok?!"

"I'm afraid not Sarah, John is dead."

"What... No, he can't be..."

"You can see for yourself in the police report here. It's currently being investigated as a homicide."

Silberman set the folder down on the table where Sarah was seated. Shaking, she slowly opened it up and shuffled through the paperwork until she came to half a dozen photographs of John's bloody corpse, lying facedown in the middle of a sidewalk on some street corner.

"No..." Sarah whispered, dropping the photos back onto the table. "Not like this..."

Tears began to fall from the woman's eyes, wetting the photographs and the papers from the report.

"It's time for you to come clean, Sarah. Tell us the truth. John's killer is still at large. Help us find him."

"You motherfucker! This is all your fault, keeping me locked in here where I couldn't protect him!" Sarah shouted as she lunged at Silberman, wrapping her hands around his neck and sending the man crashing to the floor.

It only took a few seconds for one of the guards and two orderlies to burst into the room, pulling Sarah off of Silberman and pinning her to the floor.

"Are you alright Doctor?" One of the nurses asked, peering in as Silberman returned to his feet and dusted himself off.

"I'll make it. Let's just get her sedated for now. She'll need some time to adjust to the fact that her son is dead," he continued just before turning to leave.

Sarah tried to shout something back, but one of the men restraining her covered her mouth with his hand. She narrowed her eyes at him as she tried in vain to squirm free.

"Ssshhhh, it's ok. I got something for you," the man responded, licking his lips as he reached down with his free hand to undo his fly.

Sarah closed her eyes tightly, not from the actions of the man hovering over top of her, but because of the blinding flash of light and deafening sonic boom that suddenly erupted from outside. It had been the middle of a partly cloudy afternoon, but as Sarah reopened her eyes a few seconds later, outside the window she could see that the sky had been set on fire. The skin of the three men restraining her soon boiled and blistered and, screaming in agony they released their grip on her. The room became enveloped in flames as the blast wave hit the building, turning all that was around Sarah to ash. John was dead and today was Judgement Day. Realizing her worst fears had come to pass, she screamed one last time just before the nuclear fire consumed her too and everything went black.

Sarah inhaled sharply as she sprung back into consciousness, her eyes flashing open and focusing on the face of the one she'd been clinging tightly to in her sleep. Cameron had been watching Sarah closely as the woman slept next to her, twitching and moaning most of the night from whatever bad dreams her mind was currently possessed with. There wasn't much the cyborg could do other than hold Sarah close and wait for the drug's effects to wear off.

Sarah silently stared into Cameron's doe eyes for a few seconds as the terminator's soft fingertips gently stroked the woman's forehead, something Cameron hoped she would find soothing.

"Good morning," Cameron greeted, but Sarah said nothing as she began to release her hold on the terminator, unraveling herself from the bedsheets and turning away.

"Sarah? Are you ok?"

"Yeah... I'm... fine. What time is it?" she asked as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"10:27."

"Shit, already? We need to get going." Sarah declared as she scooted herself to the edge of the bed and slid her feet back into her boots. She then began making her way to the bathroom, grabbing the wall when she nearly lost her balance from still feeling a bit lightheaded.

"Be careful," Cameron cautioned. "The drugs effects may not have completely worn off yet."

"I still feel it a little bit, not nearly as bad as last night. I'm not worried about the drug. Honestly... right now I'm still trying to process the fact that we were actually lying in bed together."

"That was your idea," Cameron reminded her as she slid out of the bed herself.

"I know, I was just scared," Sarah replied as she shut the bathroom door behind her.

"But not of me," Cameron countered, but received no response.

Sarah eyed the bullets Cameron had left on the counter next to the sink and collected them for disposal elsewhere, lest the maid stumble upon them later. After splashing some warm water on her face and taking care of some other business, Sarah re-emerged.

"Come on, take me back home," she commanded as she walked past Cameron towards the door, not making eye contact as her way of refusing help.

"John and Derek are probably worried. Did you tell them where we were?" the woman asked, recalling some of Cameron's short call to John but her memory of the previous night as a whole was a little foggy.

"I told them my rescue attempt was successful and we were stopping at a motel. That's all," Cameron replied as she grabbed her jacket and handed it to Sarah.

"Good. They don't need to know the details," Sarah responded, putting the jacket back on before reaching for the doorknob.

"Here, I'll get us checked out," Cameron said, handing Sarah the car keys.

Sarah fidgeted with the radio from the passenger seat for a few minutes while she waited for Cameron to return. She thought it might help distract her from the small amount of lingering anxiety she was still feeling the way Cameron's singing had, but decided she would rather have quiet when all she could find was annoying pop music. She shut it off when she saw Cameron walking back to the car.

The cyborg said nothing upon returning until she reached into her pocket and powered her cell phone back on as they were pulling out of the motel parking lot.

"You should call John. I'm sure he's wanting to hear from you... if you're feeling up to it."

The terminator knew John wasn't going to be happy that she'd ignored him all night after their brief conversation, but she also knew that he should be reasonably safe with Derek while she tended to Sarah. He was just going to have to cope with at least knowing she'd gotten his mother back safely.

And despite the distant attitude the woman was displaying now, Cameron took some satisfaction in the fact that Sarah hadn't pushed her away last night and had even turned to her for comfort. For now she would be content to hope that meant _something_.

Receiving the phone, Sarah saw a voicemail alert and didn't have to play it back to have an idea of who it was from and what it said. She took a breath as she dialed her son's number.

"Hello?" John answered.

"John, it's Mom."

"Finally! What's going on, is everything alright? Why didn't Cameron let me talk to you last night?"

Sarah decided she'd give him the truth, but condensed appropriately. "Sorry, I wasn't feeling very well. They drugged me with something, I was pretty out of it, but I'm ok now. I didn't tell them anything, and Cameron took care of them so we're safe, at least right now."

"Jesus, Mom... Well, I'm glad you're ok. Are you coming home now?"

"We're on our way, we'll see you in a bit... How's Derek? Did he make it back ok and get that bullet wound taken care of?"

"Yeah. He's in the shower right now, but I'll tell him you're on your way back."

"Ok. One more thing, the men who kidnapped me mentioned someone named Isaac," Sarah continued. "I remember seeing that name in at least one or two of the files on Curtis' laptop. See if you can find them. It might be important."

...

"Are you feeling ok?" Cameron asked as they pulled into the driveway. The drive home had lasted over an hour and Sarah had hardly muttered a word since hanging up with John.

"Yeah, just starving."

"I'll fix you something to eat."

"I think I can handle that, Girlie." Sarah responded as Cameron reached in the backseat and grabbed the laptop she'd retrieved from the warehouse last night.

"What are you doing with that?"

"I need to delete the video they recorded last night before we look to see what else is on here. I'll meet you inside when I'm done."

"Good thinking," Sarah replied as she exited the vehicle.

John was seated on the living room couch, looking back over Curtis' files as Sarah asked while Derek observed. The two looked up immediately when they heard the front door opening.

"Mom!" John exclaimed, setting the computer aside and rushing toward her, Derek following closely behind. "Holy shit," he blurted, noticing the bruise on his mother's face. "Did they torture you?"

"it doesn't matter, I'm fine and I didn't give up any information."

"I know you'd never do that, Mom," John replied, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tenderly. "I'm just happy you made it back. I was really worried."

"We both were," Derek added.

"Easy, my ribs are a little sore," Sarah said, but embraced her son as well.

They disconnected a few seconds later and moved out of the doorway as Cameron joined them inside the house, carrying the Eden laptop and briefcase with the remaining 2 syringes of the drug still inside.

"Thank you for getting Mom out of there," John said as the cyborg entered, still not thrilled over her going dark last night, but it seemed to matter less now that Sarah was back and safe.

"You're welcome," she replied in her characteristic monotone.

"I'm glad you made it back too, Sarah," Derek said as he met the woman's gaze and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "When I saw them take you away my damn stomach turned upside down."

Sarah nodded. "Glad to see you made it out ok too."

"Thanks to you. I owe you one."

"How's the shoulder?"

Derek pulled the collor of his shirt down to display the wound.

"John helped me stitch it up last night. I'll make it."

"Good. You guys hungry?"

"We actually just ate, but there should be some leftover roast beef in the fridge if you want some."

"That sounds good. I'll eat, then we're going to have to start planning our counterstrike."

John's brow furrowed. "Counterstrike? Mom, don't you think you should try and rest for a bit?"

"I'm fine John. But they sent in a heavily armed, well equipped security team in after us. Whatever they're so eager to protect in that basement has to be destroyed," Sarah declared as she headed into the kitchen, the rest of the crew following close behind.

"Destroyed? But we don't even know for sure if this is about Skynet or not! I thought we were just going to try and plant my virus to see what's actually going on?"

"Did you search Curtis' laptop for the name Issac?" Sarah asked as she began gathering the ingredients to fix herself a sandwich.

"Yeah, it's not a person. Issac _is_ apparently the name of a project that deals with artificial intelligence, but that doesn't necessarily mean..."

"Tell him about the drug," Sarah said, turning to Cameron, deciding she might as well let John and Derek know about the connection. The terminator went on to explain to them the drug Sarah had been injected with and its use in future Skynet work camps.

Derek's eyes widened. "I know the drug you're talking about... and I knew people who were exposed to it. It's some nasty shit."

"Tell me about it..." Sarah interjected. "The effects from it seem to be gone now though, thank God."

"Well your mother's right," Derek said, turning back to John. "Even if they're not building Skynet in that bunker they've gotta be involved somehow. No one had ever heard of a drug like that before Skynet started using it on prisoners."

"Their research is based in artificial intelligence," Sarah went on, "Not to mention they've been harassing Curtis, who's name is written on our wall in blood, about _his_ company's research, which is in a related field. They have to be taken out. The security team, the employees, all of them. Then we deal with Curtis and start investigating the rest of the names."

"And do what? slaughter them all? That's not like you," John protested. "What if this drug _is _still affecting you somehow?"

"It's not the drug, John. War has casualties. I'm not saying I want to kill _everyone_ on the list, but..."

"These men from Eden are bad people, John," Cameron interrupted. "If I hadn't rescued your mother..."

Cameron met Sarah's gaze as she spoke, and the look in the woman's eyes prompted her not to finish the rest of the sentence, though John wasn't quite sure when exactly the terminator had started judging people as good or bad.

"Show him the laptop," Sarah commanded Cameron.

"What laptop?" John asked with a raised eyebrow, his piqued curiosity distracting from the sudden change of subject.

"I recovered this laptop from the warehouse where Sarah was being help captive," Cameron informed him, holding the computer out for John to examine. "They had the webcam activated and someone attempted to communicate with me from it last night before we left. Text appeared on the screen asking who I was."

"Really? Like an instant message?"

"Yes."

"Did you answer it?"

"No. I was too busy rescuing your mother."

"Well, I should take a look at it. There's a chance it could help us find out what Eden's really up to before storming in and blowing it all away without even knowing."

"Alright then," Sarah agreed as she spread mayo on her sandwich roll, "See what else you can dig up. But our plan will remain unchanged unless it's something substantial enough to change my mind."

"I'll also dispose of the remaining samples of the drug I recovered," Cameron continued.

"No, save them for now," Sarah replied. "We might be able to find someone to analyze them and figure out where they came from. It could be from another division of Eden's parent company, Kaliba or whatever their name is. We don't know exactly how big of an operation this is."

Cameron said nothing as she set the briefcase containing the drug down on the counter and turned to leave the room to take a look at the laptop with John. She knew Sarah was right, but at the same time didn't like the idea of keeping the drug around. Perhaps she didn't want to be reminded of the psychological pain it had caused the woman. Maybe this was part of what humans called _empathy_. Regardless, she decided to follow her logic and keep the drug samples around for now.

Sarah wasn't sure if there'd be any more evidence of a Skynet connection on the laptop to convince John, but regardless, tinkering with it should at least give him something to do in the meantime aside from making her feel worse about what she knew she was going to have to do. She could only hope Cameron had indeed removed the footage on it from the previous night.

Derek remained with Sarah as she sat down to have lunch. "So what exactly is the plan for the counterstrike?" he asked, taking the seat next to her at the table.

"After I'm finished eating, the first thing I'll be doing is heading out to retrieve my heavy weapons in storage and get armed up for our assault on the Eden compound. And I want Cameron in this time."

"You're ready to go all out..." Derek remarked, deciding he wouldn't protest the cyborg being involved for this round after last night's disaster.

Sarah nodded.

"Alright then. I'm in too."

"What about your shoulder?" Sarah asked with her mouth full, too hungry to care if her voice sounded muffled.

"I've fought with plenty of worse injuries. Are you sure _you're_ feeling up to it? You look a little tired."

"So do you."

"John and I were up most of the night waiting to hear something... Not knowing what happened to you kinda made it hard to want to sleep."

"Then we'll both get some rest tonight and then head out tomorrow afternoon. We'll need to make it there before 5 when the rest of the workers leave," Sarah said in an icy tone.

Derek raised an eyebrow. "You're sure you're up for this? It does seem a bit ruthless for your usual style."

"A dozen or two lives versus 3 billion. I've made up my mind," Sarah replied, attempting to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut as she tried to convince herself in her head that it was the right course of action.


	17. Chapter 17

"Don't give me that look," Sarah snapped. "You don't think I'm gonna follow through on this?"

"I didn't say that," Derek replied, "You just seem a little..."

"This is our chance!" Sarah hissed, cutting him off. "We can end this war, before it even starts. We have to do whatever it takes."

"I'm not arguing with you. You have my full support," Derek confirmed, before his eyes wandered to their latest evidence of the Skynet/Eden connection.

"So this is the stuff, huh?" he asked, opening the briefcase and examining one of the syringes full of the drug as Sarah finished cleaning up the dishes from her lunch.

"Yeah... that's it. Nightmares in liquid form..."

"Pretty bad, huh?"

Sarah nodded.

"So I've heard," Derek continued, "but uh... you know you could've just come straight home instead of stopping at a motel, I mean, if you needed someone to uh, ... look after you... I wouldn't have minded."

It came out awkward, but Sarah's decision on last night's detour_ had_ been bothering him. After all, why would she rather be trapped in a small room with the likes of metal instead of having him and/or John provide support?

"It's alright, Cameron..." Sarah half-replied, stopping mid-sentence in an equally awkward attempt at a response.

Derek's eyes widened. "Cameron? You don't seriously still trust that thing do you?"

Sarah obviously couldn't tell him the truth, but she was also getting sick of Derek constantly questioning her judgement when it came to the cyborg.

"I'm not having this conversation with you again!" the woman angrily replied. "If you're coming with us to pick up the weapons, meet me back here in 10 minutes," she instructed as she headed upstairs to get Cameron.

Cameron meanwhile was hovering over John's shoulder as the boy sat on the child's bed in his room with the recovered laptop. Bringing it out of standby, he watched as the screen illuminated and the operating system reloaded.

"Alright, let's see what we got here," he said as he navigated to the explorer to search over the files on the hard drive, but as soon as he opened the program a runtime error message displayed. He tried clicking the "OK" button and attempted to relaunch the application, but more errors continued to appear until the whole system became unresponsive and he was forced to reboot.

Upon restarting the machine, before the operating system had even loaded this time, even more error messages appeared in plain-white text over a black screen.

"What?" John blurted as he scanned over the errors. "What's wrong with this thing?"

"It's not working?" Cameron asked.

"No... it's like the whole hard drive is toast."

"It was fine just a few minutes ago."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

John scratched his head, trying to figure out how a machine that was supposedly working one minute could just become completely hosed the next. It seemed way too coincidental that the hard drive would crash as soon it was handed to him to take a look at.

Hearing someone clear their throat, John looked up to find his mother standing in his bedroom doorway.

"I need to borrow Cameron for a little while," she announced, "She's coming with us to pick up the weapons at the safehouse."

Cameron looked up at Sarah and began moving toward her in silence, but apparently not protesting the demand.

"This laptop is all kinds of screwed up," John declared, turning his gaze back down. "I can't even get it to boot."

"What happened to it?" Sarah asked as she stepped in closer to take a look at the screen.

"I don't know, but are you sure you're feeling alright, Mom?" the boy asked, glancing up at Sarah as she stood close by. "You don't look so good. Maybe you should see a doctor."

"I already told you I'm fine," Sarah insisted. "Just worry about what information you can get off of that computer for now, anything that could make tomorrow's mission easier."

"Alright," John complied, "I'll try messing around with it and see if I can at least get it to boot up."

"Did you do anything to that laptop?" Sarah asked Cameron quietly once they were out in the hallway.

"Other than delete the video, no. I don't know why it's not working."

Sarah sighed. "Well, let's just get going... maybe John can figure it out. And you're _absolutely_ sure you deleted that video?"

"Yes."

Sarah had to look away from the Christmas tree still on display in the living room as she and Cameron descended the staircase. Having to make the difficult call to take out a whole building full of people at this time of year wasn't especially heartening.

They grabbed Derek who was waiting downstairs, and the trio departed to retrieve the weapons. They drove for about an hour and a half to the safehouse Sarah and Derek had set up. It was a small 3 bedroom, 2 story brick building with a basement that sat at the end of a long unpaved driveway, not unlike the one leading up to the Eden bunker. Secluded in a heavily wooded area, it was an older structure, in need of its share of repairs, but an ideal location for surviving a nuclear apocalypse if it came down to it, though they continued to hope it wouldn't.

The trio entered the house and made their way to the musty basement, which Sarah and Derek were still working on modifying a corner of into a makeshift fallout shelter by following instructions from a Cold War era booklet.

Sarah flipped the lightswitch and pulled out a loose brick in one of the walls, allowing her to unlatch the door to the secret compartment they'd constructed to hide the weapons.

Inside, Cameron set her curious eyes on the M134 Minigun resting on the shelf and immediately reached for it.

"You guys get off with those things?" Sarah teased.

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, assuming Sarah wasn't asking literally.

"Our other terminator chose the same gun when he helped us take out Cyberdyne."

"Thank you for explaining. It _is_ an effective weapon."

"Yeah... effective alright," Derek added snidely.

"Let's just get this done," Sarah commanded, and she and Derek began loading the rest of the necessary weapons for the assault into the truck they'd driven there in, including a rocket launcher, assualt rifles, explosive materials, and plenty of ammunition.

"I need to make sure this weapon is in the proper condition for combat if I'm to use it," Cameron announced as Sarah passed her on her way back to the basement for her second trip.

"Do what you need to do, Girlie," the woman curtly replied, Derek following close behind but saying nothing.

The cyborg made her way to the backyard of the house, which overlooked a swampy lake she figured she may as well test fire into.

After their final trip, Derek secured the rest of the weapons in the bed of the truck and prepared to lay a tarp over them for the drive back as Sarah returned to the house to make sure everything was locked up tight. As she was about to leave the basement, she laid eyes on a bottle of Jose Cuervo next to the shelf where they were keeping non-perishable food items, something Derek had insisted on including in the rest of their stockpile. She quickly stuffed it inside her jacket and returned upstairs, where she began to hear heavy blasts of gunfire coming from around back.

Sarah quickly locked the front door and made her way to the backyard where she spotted Cameron, a hail of bullets exploding from the rotating barrel of her gun, some hitting the water and others ripping through the surrounding wilderness. She fired them off for few more seconds as Sarah approached before releasing the trigger. Noises from the wildlife erupted as all kinds of startled creatures began to scatter.

"Alright that's enough!" Sarah shouted over the ruckus. "We need to conserve ammo... _and_ try not to get the attention of everyone within a 12 mile radius," she said, trying to ignore that she was in fact a little turned on by the whole display. Something about the terminator in her usual spaghetti strap tank top and tight jeans firing the powerful weapon had apparently stirred up something in her.

"Load it in and let's get back home," she commanded Cameron, gesturing towards the truck parked near the front of the house. "It's already starting to get dark."

...

"This thing is totally fried, Mom. I've tried everything," John declared to Sarah, who'd inquired about his progress with the laptop upon returning home.

"How could it have just crashed like that? Is there any way they could've programmed it to self-destruct if stolen or something?"

"I... guess it's possible..."

"Why do you think they'd be so secretive?"

John looked away, knowing full well his mother's reason for asking that question and the fact that he couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse.

"John listen to me," Sarah continued, prompting him to meet her gaze once more. "I still have your virus on the flash drive. When we get inside tomorrow, I'll let it upload, if it works, you can download as much information as you can while I set the triggers for the detonators. I hope it'll help you understand why we have to do what we have to do, but either way it's all getting blown sky high once I have all the C-4 in place. You'll just have to forgive me for this one, because it could be our only chance."

John reluctantly agreed, still not fully approving of his mother's plan, since it did include taking out everyone working at the facility along with destroying what they were building. But there was clearly no doubt in her mind as to what exactly was being constructed there, and John would just have to hope he could find evidence of Skynet from the hacked Eden servers to at least mitigate some of the guilt. Regardless, after dinner John seemed distant as the rest of the crew sat at the dining table that was now cleared of food to lay out the plans for tomorrow's mission. Derek was to leave the SUV parked sideways on the dirt road, two miles from the facility, as a roadblock. He would have the rocket launcher ready to fire on any incoming vehicles that posed a threat to their siege. Sarah would drive the rest of the way in the truck, with a sniper rifle at her side to take out as many guards as possible from a distance before proceeding forward. At that point, Cameron would stand in the bed of the truck and fire the minigun at any and all personnel once in range. The terminator would then be sent inside to clear out the rest of the building and gain access to the basement, making way for Sarah to plant the explosives and blow everything to hell. John would stay behind at home, with his computer ready to receive the files from the servers once Sarah was hopefully able to upload the virus before it was all destroyed.

After the plans were finalized, John retreated back to his room to make one final effort at repairing the stolen laptop. A few minutes went by without any luck, and John shifted his gaze up to suddenly find Cameron standing in his doorway.

"Are you upset with your mother?" the cyborg asked in her usual flat tone, having picked up on some of the tension between them.

"I don't want to talk about it, you wouldn't understand," John responded, looking back down at the computer screen and pounding away at the keyboard.

"I understand that she's having us do this so that _you_ won't have to someday, because she loves you."

John snorted. "This isn't just about me. Besides, you don't even know what love is," he replied, shifting his gaze back up to the terminator to see her staring down at the floor. John continued tinkering with the computer, and after a moment had passed he looked up again to see that Cameron had apparently not moved at all.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Maybe you're right."

"About what?"

"About me not knowing what love is," she said in monotone as she turned to leave.

John was a little surprised by her reaction, but shrugged it off and continued working late into the evening, though he was making little progress and eventually began to lose concrentation. He was still tired from having stayed up most of the previous night along with Derek while waiting to hear news on Sarah.

...

Around midnight, Sarah peeked through John's cracked open bedroom door to find him passed out on his bed, the computer he hadn't given up on fixing still in his lap. Derek was asleep as well downstairs on the living room sofa. So with the rest of the house quiet, she decided to put on some warm clothes and headed outside.

Sarah grunted as her fist made contact with the punching bag she'd set up in the shed. She was still a little sore from being kicked around last night, but her mind was also clouded with digust from having been violated and filled with restless guilt and apprehension over tomorrow's mission. She hoped that if she kept up the physically demanding activity for a while she could exhaust herself enough to fall asleep.

She continued hitting the bag for over an hour, even after she felt a set of eyes on her from behind. Knowing there was still one member of the household that wouldn't be asleep, she didn't have to turn around to have a good idea who it was, so she ignored it, until one particular strike caused an especially sharp pain in her side. Sarah hissed, clutching her ribs and backing off from the bag for the moment.

"You're overdoing it," a young female voice accused.

"Shut up," Sarah responded, her back still turned.

"You should come back inside. It's cold out here."

"Do I look cold to you?" Sarah growled, wiping some small beads of sweat from her forehead in defiance.

"Well, you should get some rest before tomorrow. It's already after 1 a.m."

"I'm not tired."

"What's bothering you?" the terminator asked in a gentle voice, detecting Sarah's elevated stress level.

"What do you think?!" Sarah growled again, finally turning to face Cameron. "A lot of people are going to die tomorrow... not that you care, but..."

"A lot of people like the ones from the warehouse?"

Sarah shook her head. "We don't know. Some of them _might_ be innocent... just like Miles and Andy. I just..." Sarah bit her bottom lip in frustration. "First I nearly get raped by a bunch of thugs and now we're about to go on a killing spree tomorrow... I have absolutely no dignity anymore in this fight."

"You had plenty of dignity in my future, Sarah. A lot of people would have died for you."

"You think that's what I fucking want? More people dying for me?"

"No. You care. More than most would... That's must be what makes you so... legendary."

"Yeah well, sometimes I wish I could just be like you and _not_ care."

"There _are_ things I care about," Cameron replied softly but with firmness in her tone.

"Like what?"

"Getting you out of that warehouse."

Sarah said nothing in response, just shoved past her, and retreated back inside the house.

...

Patrolling the interior of the house as part of her nightly routine, Cameron stepped lightly past Derek, asleep on the couch, and casted a glance in the direction of Sarah's bedroom. She noticed light still coming from under the door, and tiptoed closer until she was in reach of the knob. She quickly discovered it was unlocked and slowly, she twisted it and let the door creak open.

"What is it?" Sarah asked, sitting with her legs hanging over the end of her bed and casting a sideway's glance at her persistent intruder, but there was little anger in her tone. To Cameron she sounded almost... desperate.

"Just checking," the cyborg simply replied.

"Checking for what?"

"If you were still awake. It's almost 3 in the morning now..."

"I can't sleep," Sarah said as she clutched a bottle of an alcoholic beverage in her right hand that Cameron focused in on.

"Are you drinking?" she asked, sounding more curious than accusatory.

Sarah said nothing as she again turned her back to the cyborg.

"If you're upset, I want to help."

"How?" Sarah asked, still facing away, but Cameron approached her, knelt down and gently grabbed both of her feet, still clad in her white socks, and began a massaging motion with her fingers.

"You like it when I rub your feet."

Sarah snorted. "Maybe," she admitted.

Cameron smiled up at her as she continued the massage. "I think you do."

"I kinda like that other thing you do too," Sarah said with a smirk.

"What other thing?" Cameron asked, playing dumb. She wasn't 100% sure what Sarah meant, but even if she was referring to what had happened after the last time Cameron had given her a massage, at this point the cyborg was not ready to cross those boundaries again, especially if this was mainly the tequila talking.

Sarah hesitated, surprised at what had just come out of her mouth. Sure, she could chalk it up to the effects of the alcohol, just like she could chalk up Cameron's recent behavior towards her as some kind of trick or programming glitch. But either way, Cameron _had _been doing so much for her lately that maybe something in her felt she did owe the cyborg affection in return.

"C'mere," Sarah said, placing her hand on a spot to her side.

There was a pause, then Cameron slowly stood and took a seat next to Sarah on the bed. "What?" she asked in an almost whisper as she looked deep into the woman's emerald green eyes.

"I was just thinking about the warehouse," Sarah continued.

"What about it?"

"If it had been someone else other than you, they may not have even been able to get me out of there... at least not as easily."

Cameron smiled a little. "You're welcome, Sarah."

_A kiss, _Sarah told herself as she playfully brushed some of Cameron's hair to the side of her face_. Just a kiss, t__hat's all. It doesn't have to mean anything more than "thank you" for her preemptive "you're welcome"._

Cameron stared at Sarah with a blank expression, a bit confused by the woman's behavior. Setting the tequila aside, Sarah began to lean in closer, but Cameron turned away just as their lips were about to meet.

"You're intoxicated," the cyborg protested.

"Not that much... I just..." Sarah didn't know what else to say, but something in her was starting to drown out the part of her brain that normally would've told her this was way off-limits, yet _again_.

Her mind started to drift to tomorrow's mission as she stared into Cameron's innocent doe eyes. She knew there was a chance she wasn't going make it out alive, and the thought that this could be her last night in the world of the living was the final push she needed.

Sarah practically lunged at Cameron this time, wrapping her arms around her and hungrily claiming the terminator's mouth as she covered it with her own.

Cameron was stiff at first, but slowly began to return the woman's passion. Bringing her hands up to rest on Sarah's hips, Cameron brushed her tongue against hers and gradually deepened the kiss.

Sarah moved back a minute or two later, pulling her t-shirt up and over her head and tossing it aside.

"Your turn," Sarah said with a grin. From the look in her eyes, Cameron could detect she was indeed a little drunk, but highly aroused.

"Are you sure you this is what you want?"

"I'm not sure of anything anymore, Girlie."

**A/N: Happy now, Camerah fans? Well stay tuned, I think you'll enjoy the next chapter...**


End file.
